THE Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) recently completed a series of consultative meetings with industry stakeholders in Mindanao aimed at addressing power-industry specific concerns on power generation and management issues.
The state-run company said it completed last month its sixth and last consultative meeting for the year in Butuan City. These meetings, it said, complement the annual Mindanao Power Customers’ Fora held in Davao City and Cagayan de Oro City in October.
“Psalm convened the representatives of Mindanao power-distribution utilities and large industrial customers to discuss their contracted energy and equivalent demand allocation for 2016, considering the available capacity of the remaining Psalm-IPP [independent power producers] plants against current demands and Interim Electricity Market [Imem] concerns,” it said.
Imem is designed to provide an immediate venue for transparent and efficient utilization of additional capacities to address Mindanao’s energy-supply shortfall.
This commercial electricity market will allow energy distributors to sell power supply from its embedded generators to areas having deficit. All of the distribution utilities and other generation capacities connected to the Mindanao power system are mandated to participate in the Imem.
The Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), launched an interim electricity market in Mindanao in 2013. However, the market was placed under “intervention” in February 2014, effectively halting its operations. This was mainly because of the power shortage in Mindanao sometime February last year, brought about by the shutdown of the 210-megawatt coal power plant.
“The temporary pause has turned into an opportunity for PEMC and the DOE [Department of Energy] to thresh out technical and commercial issues with NGCP [National Grid Corp. of the Philippines], Psalm and Imem participants through the conduct of coordination meetings and focus group discussions,” PEMC President Melinda Ocampo said.