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CONSIDERING the tight power supply and demand situation
in the Visayas, the Department of Energy (DOE) said it
is still evaluating the preparedness of the
island-region to have the Wholesale Electricity Spot
Market (WESM) Visayas commercially operational.
“We are
still studying the desirability and time when we can
operate the WESM in the Visayas. It’s a work in
progress,” Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said at the
sidelines of the 30th National Academy of Science and
Technology (NAST) meeting on Wednesday.
The
energy chief attributed the delay in the commercial
operation of the Visayas to the tight power supply-and-
demand gap on the said island-region.
In the
Visayas, Reyes said, generation capacity is rated at
1,832 megawatts (MW) with a dependable capacity of 1,475
MW and a peak demand of 1,102 MW.
“And
when you have this kind of tight supply-and-demand
situation, it makes every player a critical supplier,
since there are fewer reserve margins. And this could
result immediately to a brownout and push prices higher
when somebody, just all of a sudden, withdraws from the
system,” Reyes said.
He
acknowledged that there are also some people saying that
there are people with excess capacities who can sell
their excess into the system, and will be encouraged to
do so because of the WESM Visayas.
“We’d
rather that we are certain, as the last thing we want is
for prices to skyrocket also in the Visayas. The
Philippine Electricity Market Corp. [PEMC] earlier
pushes the need to commercially launch the WESM in the
Visayas that would help bring the much-needed
investments for additional generation capacity on the
said island-region.
“The
sooner the WESM Visayas gets running, investors can go
ahead and put in the investments needed for additional
power-generation capacity,” Lasse Holopainen, PEMC
president, told reporters.
Most of
the stakeholders in the Visayas, according to the PEMC
official, do feel there needs to be a solution to their
current power-supply problem. Holopainen admitted that
he is more concerned about how and when the much-needed
new generation capacity will come in.
Considering the delay in the implementation of the WESM
Visayas, Holopainen said there are plants that are not
running because of price constraints—particularly those
15-MW plants operated by private owners which do not
show up in the system because otherwise they will lose
money.
“Our
real hope is that the power situation in the Visayas
will improve immediately as soon as the WESM Visayas
kicks off, with the private sector expected to come in
and pour in much-needed capital,” said Holopainen.
In March
PEMC announced that it has extended its live dispatch
operations (LDOs) in the Visayas in preparation for the
Department of Energy’s approval for full commercial
operations in the Visayas.
In
February LDOs have started, which marked the final step
of the Visayas trial operations. WESM said it is
intended to test the readiness of the market systems and
the participants prior to full commercial operations. |
