PEMC slates election of new President
By Myrna M. Velasco – June 18, 2021, 4:08 PM
from Manila Bulletin
The Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC), which serves as a governance body of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), will have its new President, as Atty Oscar E. Ala will already retire from the post.
Industry sources hinted that Ala already declined nomination to become part of the PEM Board, therefore, he is no longer up for re-election as president of the WESM’s governing entity.
As of Friday (June 18), talks were circulating that Ala’s likely replacement is a bet of Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi; and one of the names mentioned had been Atty Leonido J. Pulido III, who is currently assistant secretary of the Department of Energy.
To date, the independent nominees in the PEM Board have been economic analyst Peter Wallace of the Wallace Business Forum; and businessman Jesus L. Arranza of the Federation of Philippine Industries.
The rest of the PEM Board nominees are representatives from various segments of the power industry – including those in the power generation business, transmission, distribution and supply sub-sectors.
“There had been a request for postponement of the election of the new PEMC President, so it will likely be next month,” a source said.
PEMC is the entity that has oversight function when it comes to market rules change as well as in monitoring the compliance of and surveillance on the behavior of market participants in the WESM.
Just recently, PEMC has issued its WESM Industry Code of Ethics (WICOE), as a measure to “strengthen the market’s self-governance feature by setting forth the basic tenets on values and ethical standards” that every participant in the spot market must adhere to.
Fundamentally, the WICOE will require all participants to comply with the market rules being prescribed for the electricity spot market.
As previously explained by Market Surveillance Committee Chairperson Francis Mapile, “the WICOE’s intention is to bring everyone together towards a WESM with a level playing field, and players and stakeholders that have a strong sense of integrity, honesty and accountability for all of their actions and transactions within the power bourse.”
And in the propounded establishment of the Renewable Energy (RE) Market, PEMC is in-charge of concretizing that added layer of trading in the spot market, by spearheading the crafting of the rules — primarily for the registration of targeted participants.
