The Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) made public on Tuesday the trial operation guidelines for the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) in Mindanao are ready to be launched this month.
PEMC, operator of WESM, also released the test plan for Mindanao participants comprised of generation companies, distribution utilities (electric cooperatives and private distribution utilities) bulk-users that are directly connected to the transmission grid, and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) as the system operator and metering-services provider.
The trial-operations program, which shall commence on June 26, contains a set of preparatory activities that aim to familiarize all Mindanao participants in the implementation of the WESM via the market systems and procedures to be deployed.
Mindanao participants are expected to be involved in the conduct of end-to-end testing of all interfaces and systems that will involve simulations of all processes, such as registration, bid submission, pricing and scheduling, and settlement.
“PEMC is committed in its mandate of operating an electricity market for the whole country that will usher in transparency and competition in the generation sector,” PEMC President Melinda Ocampo said.
At present, 29 participants signified their intention to take part in the trial operations.
Several capacity-building activities are also in the offing parallel to the trial-operations program to ensure the readiness of participants prior to the commercial operations of the integration of Mindanao in the WESM.
The integration of Mindanao to the WESM would cover, among others, the following: application of the Energy Regulatory Commssion—approved Price Determination Methodology for pricing and settlement of electricity transactions in the Mindanao grid; utilization of the Market Management System for the determination of dispatch schedules in the Mindanao grid; provision of access to Mindanao generators and customers to the MMS for the submission of bids, offers, self-schedules and other trading functions; real-time publication of wholesale prices for electricity in the Mindanao grid in the public web site; and eligibility of Mindanao stakeholders for membership in the Philippine Electricity Market Board and its various committees.
“We are looking forward to our presence in Mindanao as we fully realize the vision of Epira in the creation of a one WESM, where benefits of efficiencies in electricity trading shall redound to the benefit of Mindanao end-users through a transparent and reasonably-priced electricity,” Ocampo added.
The said guidelines were released following the promulgation of circular by the Department of Energy declaring the launch of WESM Mindanao.