WESM Mindanao operations set for next year

The commercial run of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market in Mindanao is slated for early 2023, according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (Iemop).

“We are targeting to launch the WESM Mindanao by the first quarter of next year,” said Iemop head of corporate strategy and communications Isidro Cacho Jr.

Once the power spot market in the region is in place, Cacho said the parameters of supply, demand and the resulting price will be clear.

WESM Mindanao was supposed to launch its commercial operations by December last year, but the plan was deferred. Iemop then pushed the schedule to later this year but the delays it encountered forced them to postpone it further.

Cacho said Iemop is hoping to roll out the WESM Mindanao first before grid operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) switches on the P52-billion Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project (MVIP).

“We are advocating to have a spot market in Mindanao before the interconnection project comes in because that will sort out things in terms of accounting and the pricing,” he told reporters.

The MVIP, among those considered an energy project of national significance, was envisioned to connect the power grids in the Visayas and Mindanao resulting in a single national grid.

NGCP had said it was targeting to complete the interconnection project before the year ends.
Iemop runs the power bourse in Luzon and Visayas power grids. The Mindanao grid is not yet integrated into WESM, the centralized venue for trading electricity as a commodity.

Through WESM, generators can sell their excess capacities not covered by supply contracts while customers can buy additional capacities to supplement their primary supply.

Similar to its function for the Luzon and Visayas grids, WESM Mindanao is expected to be the venue for efficient scheduling, dispatch and settlement of energy withdrawal and injections in the Mindanao grid.