‘PSE may operate WESM if operator fails to do its job’

By Lenie Lectura – August 13, 2019
from Business Mirror

THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) may operate the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) if the current market operator fails to perform its duties, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said recently.

“Iemop (Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines Inc.) is a mere contractor. It is the contractor of PEMC [Philippine Electric Market Corp.]. If Iemop will fail in its performance, we can give it to others. We can give it to the PSE,” said Cusi.

In 2017, PSE President Ramon Monzon said that, “our long-term vision, our dream is that we will operate other exchanges,” including the WESM. “We started talks with the DOE if we could also operate that electricity exchange and basically, of course, the question they ask is, what do we know about electricity? And my answer is, an exchange is really a technology company.”

Iemop oversees transaction billing and settlement procedures, and maintains and publishes a registry of WESM trading participants. It also sets the dispatch schedule of all power facilities, and monitor daily market trading activities.

For over a year now, Iemop has operated the country’s trading floor for electricity. The Philippine Electricity Market (PEM) board, which used to operate WESM, now remains the spot market’s governing body.

Cusi said a review of the performance of Iemop is ongoing. “We’re evaluating all the works. Kaya tinitignan namin kung anong nangyari sa trabaho ng [So we’re looking at what’s happening with the performace of the] Iemop,” said the energy chief.

In April, the DOE created a task force to assess the performance of the WESM under the governance of an independent market operator (IMO).

“The DOE deems it necessary to assess the performance of the WESM under the current regime to ensure transparency, competitiveness, protection of public interest and integrity of the WESM,” stated DOE Circular 03-0009, which designated DOE Assistant Secretary Leonido Pulido III as chairman of the task force.