DOE sets conditions on planned WESM-Mindanao establishment

By Myrna M.Velasco – January 20, 2019, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

The Department of Energy (DOE) has laid down at least six conditions for it to firm up its go-signal on the establishment of the propounded Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in Mindanao grid as targeted around June this year.

These required parameters delve with: the setting up of systems and procedures; trial operations program (TOP); operationalization of the spot market; trainings for WESM-Mindanao participants; approval of the price determination methodology (PDM) by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC); and the certification of the new market management system (NMMS) or the more advanced trading platform of the WESM.

On systems and procedures, the energy department explained that this will entail setting in place the operational link between the market operator Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) to that of system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

The IEMOP takes charge of the overall trading activities of the WESM, but that has to be supported by the dispatch call and protocol of system operator NGCP. The trials for WESM Mindanao on this sphere are on-going.

As reported to the DOE, “existing meters have been reprogrammed from 15 minutes to five-minute interval configuration.”

At the same time, it was noted that Mindanao grid has been integrated to the market network model underpinning the spot market – and has also passed consistency tests.

On the mandated trial operations program, the energy department indicated that “83 percent of the trading participants have already registered to the TOP.”

“There are trading participants yet to be registered,” the department said, while qualifying that “there is an increase in the number of trading participants with access to the new market management system.”

On the spot market’s operationalization in Mindanao grid, the DOE emphasized that the current set of WESM rules will be sufficient, primarily those required on “forecasting, scheduling, dispatch, pricing and metering processes.”

Relative to that, the DOE declared that it is now drafting “an advisory to WESM Mindanao participants to guide them in the transition to the commercial operations.”

The concretization of a spot market in Mindanao is seen most beneficial when the country’s three power grids are already functionally and physically linked up with the completion of the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project in year 2020.