THE Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) said it has taken over the monitoring of wholesale and retail metering services providers (MSPs) from the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).
PEMC made the announcement in an advisory on its website.
MSPs provide equipment for metering installation and make reports to metered trading participants in the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM). The WESM is where generators sell excess power not covered by contracts, and where customers can buy additional output on top of these contracts.
In a Feb. 22 advisory, PEMC announced to market participants that it started monitoring MSPs since the start of the January billing month.
“PEMC and IEMOP agreed on a transition plan for the conduct of the MSP performance rating. In the said transition plan, IEMOP will complete the monitoring of MSP performance until CY (calendar year) 2020 and PEMC will assume the function effective CY 2021,” PEMC said in its advisory.
PEMC added that it will be publishing the monthly MSP performance every fourth week of the month after the billing period.
At a virtual briefing Friday, IEMOP Acting Chief Operating Officer Robinson P. Descanzo said PEMC has always been in charge of the governance function, which includes the monitoring of MSPs.
“The monitoring of performance of MSPs is really the responsibility of PEMC, but in the previous years when we started the transition, the IEMOP carried out the monitoring of MSPs. After succeeding meetings and (an) agreement with PEMC, soon this function was turned over to them and it started this year,” Mr. Descanzo said.
Amendments to the WESM’s metering manual, which were endorsed to the energy department in 2019, state that PEMC will function as the WESM’s governance body, with IEMOP the independent market operator. The proposed amendments sought the transfer of MSP monitoring from the IEMOP to the PEMC. — Angelica Y. Yang