Power spot market moves toward full automation

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), the operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), has launched a new system as it moves toward a fully automated, more competitive and transparent market.

In a statement, PEMC said it introduced the Central Registration and Settlement System (CRSS) to its market participants, an enterprise system that further enhances market processes such as registration, metering, billing and settlement.

As the market operator, PEMC is leveraging technology to upgrade its operations to drive efficiency and to benefit the entire electricity-consuming populace as well, PEMC president Melinda Ocampo said.

“Enhancing the operations of the country’s platform for electricity trading is a substantial undertaking. PEMC is committed to supporting the government’s ongoing efforts to reform our electricity sector with market liberalization and private investment,” she said.

CRSS was designed and developed considering the enhanced WESM rules based on a five-minute dispatch interval.

It is linked to the new market management system (NMMS) to collect data on prices and schedules which will be used in the settlement process. The NMMS went live parallel to the trial operations of WESM Mindanao.

PEMC’s technology partner Exist said it continues to pursue and drive market efficiency through innovation to reduce time required for several market processes especially with the ongoing trial operations of the WESM in Mindanao.

“As the technology partner of PEMC, Exist is committed to developing an advanced platform that promotes transparent transactions, enhance competition and efficiently drive down electricity costs,” Exist president and chief executive officer Michael Lim said.

With CRSS, PEMC enables timely supplier switching process of contestable customers under the retail competition regime, while facilitating data exchange between the market operator and the trading participants.

“PEMC ushers a new period empowered by innovation and we would like our partners to embrace this change with us,” Ocampo said. “Being able to accomplish registration and transactions securely online is another step but one that we are confident our market players will surely appreciate once they switch to using this.”