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The Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) has
completed the technical preparations for the Wholesale Electricity
Spot Market’s Visayas leg, and is now awaiting the Department of
Energy’s go-signal to kick off its operations.
In a statement, PEMC, the spot
market’s operator, said its board has certified the technical
readiness of the WESM to begin commercial operations in the Visayas
anytime on or after February 26, 2008.
This endorsement will be
transmitted to the DOE, after which a definite date will be set for
the Visayas market launch.
”Now that we’ve achieved
technical readiness, we await advice from the DOE on the final
launch date in the Visayas,” Mario R. Pangilinan, PEMC executive
vice- president, said.
PESM purposely delayed the
opening of WESM’s operations in Visayas, which was scheduled on
January 26, to allow further time for participants to com-plete
registration and test their market trading interface systems.
PEMC said that once WESM begins
in the Visayas, there will be “more efficient use of capacity as
well as giving the appropriate investment signals for more power
generation capacity at the right time.”
But PEMC President Lasse A.
Holopainen said that although WESM’s operations in the Visayas
have attracted most of the power-generating companies in the region,
the participation of bulk energy users, such as distribution
utilities and big industries, have been proble-matic because of
existing power supply contracts that limit what they can buy from
the spot market.
Holopainen added: “The
generators in the Visayas have all signed up for participation in
the market. However, on the buyer side, there is a lack of
direct participation due to recurring issues on the existing power
contracts. Although in some ways this may be beneficial in the
short-term as this ensures the consumers are protected from price
spikes during the early days of the market.”
Established under the Electric
Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, the WESM, which initially began
its commercial operations in Luzon in June 2006, is the venue for
trading electricity wherein electricity prices are set by market
forces, free from the restrictions of regulation.
--Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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