Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) won the tug-of-war as to which entity shall be finally authorized to operate the Renewable Energy Market (RE Market), a platform that will be used for the trading of RE certificates.
According to IEMOP President Richard J. Nethercott, the transfer of the RE Market is now being firmed up between Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC), which initiated the formation of RE Market trading instrument. After the transfer, IEMOP will oversee RE Markets commercial operation as additional trading layer in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.
“It (RE Market) is under process now, it is with the DOE (Department of Energy. We’re just waiting for it to be transferred. We have PEMC and IEMOP already coordinated that matter,” he conveyed.
Nethercott further stated that the targeted operations of the RE Market is either June or July this year.
He emphasized that the RE Market will be one of the enhancement features of the spot market; along with the reserve market which will also be operationalized within this year.
“For the transfer, we submitted recommendations to the DOE, but it’s still pending with them. There are many developments in the market this year…we’re anticipating that middle part of the year,” Nethercott stressed.
The IEMOP chief executive reiterated earlier plans that the RE market will serve as a venue for paper trading of RE certificates (RECs), which refers to tradable certificates with corresponding megawatt-hours (MWh) of RE capacity sold to mandated participants via the spot market.
Via the RE Market, it was explained that qualified entities and companies can purchase RECs that will match their required RE volumes. In most energy markets, these are designed to help buyer-entities on their carbon offsetting goals.
In the Philippine RE market, however, the RE certificates will aid power utilities to achieve RE capacity needs so they can comply with the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) set forth under the Renewable Energy Act.
The RPS policy prescribes that the mandated participants – primarily the distribution utilities (DUs), shall procure certain percentage of their supply portfolio from RE capacities – and their required volumes shall follow the yearly increment prescribed by the energy department.
Close to 300 participants had already enlisted as either prospective seller or buyer in the RE Market based on the initial phase carried out by PEMC.
