Mindanao power spot market reset next year

MANILA, Philippines — Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) has pushed back anew the full operations of the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) in Mindanao to next year, its top official said.

The WESM in Mindanao is targeted to be operational on Jan. 26, 2020, IEMOP president Jose Mari Bigornia said in an interview during Powertrends 2019.

“(The reason for the  delay is) because of the level of acceptance in Mindanao as they expect power rates to increase,” he said.

“But on our side, we’re ready. In fact, we’re on parallel operations now for the old and new software so it would be seamless,” the IEMOP official said.

WESM Mindanao was originally targeted to start in October 2018, but was deferred to middle of this year due to the ongoing software audit being done on the New Market Management System (NMMS) to be used for the regional WESM.

In January this year, the market operator launched measures for the full operations of WESM in Mindanao, which include the conduct training for market participants and improvement in coordination with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

It also includes procedures to test the technical readiness of new NMMS in Mindanao to allow it to operate three months after it is launched in Luzon and Visayas.

So far, Bigornia said participant registration already reached 80 percent but they are targeting 100 percent before proceeding to WESM’s full operations in the region.

He said the remaining unregistered participants are those opposing WESM, which are mostly from electric cooperatives.

Currently, Mindanao has an oversupply and this will be addressed once WESM starts operating since there are a lot of stranded capacity without contracts, Bigornia said.

But demand is increasing in the region and supply would decrease, leading to worries of elevated electricity prices, the IEMOP official said.

Established under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001, WESM serves as the country’s electricity trading market.