WE would like to respond to the article of columnist Ben Kritz entitled “WESM a millstone around electricity consumers’ necks,” published in The Manila Times on Nov. 19, 2020, owing to the inaccuracies of his narrative. We note that we have not had the pleasure of meeting and discussing with Mr. Kritz the merits of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). Thus, let me take this opportunity to invite him to a brief online meeting to provide an overview on the WESM and how the independent electricity market operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) is ensuring that the electricity market remains independent, transparent, competitive and reliable.

One of the major challenges of the Philippines, aside from the high cost of electricity, is having no electricity at all. In the early 1990s, the Philippines had daily brownouts as the government could not afford to put up new power plants. Eventually, the government was forced to have expensive “take or pay” contracts with independent power producers, which primarily contributed to the high cost of electricity in the Philippines. Thus, this predicament is something that the government and legislators vowed never to happen again. This is primarily the driving point for restructuring the power industry and the privatization process of generation and transmission assets. The accompanying legislation, as you are aware, came to be known as the Epira Law. Aside from removing energy subsidies, the law promoted the security of supply at a competitive cost through the establishment of the WESM.

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