Department of Energy (DOE) officials said the government will privatize the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) next year once a number of studies on the country’s first electricity spot market are completed.
On the sidelines of the Third WESM Annual Participants Meeting on Thursday, Melinda Ocampo, Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) president, said the company still has to complete an audit; and a review of the spot market’s rules and different programs before it could be turned over to the private sector.
“This year not yet. We cannot relinquish until such time the audit is completed,” she said.
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes also averred that the government may be able to privatize the WESM next year.
PEMC is the state-administered agency currently operating the WESM, a venue for trading between power generators and buyers of bulk electricity such as large industries and distribution utilities.
The spot market was created under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001, which mandated its transfer to a private sector-led independent market operator (IMO) a year its establishment in 2007.
The length of time the DOE and PEMC is taking to select an IMO earlier created a stir in the power sector, which has been clamoring for such an entity to promote transparency and efficiency at the WESM.
But the PEMC chief said the government still has to thresh out a number of issues regarding the eventual entry of an IMO such as whether or not it would be a non-profit, non-stock entity like PEMC and if the spot market will be listed in the local bourse.
Despite this, Ocampo said that the government has already started talks with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a technical assistance in preparation for the entry of an IMO, which will be selected through bidding exercises.
“We need international knowledge which the ADB can tap for us,” she said. –Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter, Manila Times
July 2025
Nutrition Month
“Give us much more than P50 increase
for proper nutrition!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations
against serious violations of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideosturesVideos
July
3 July – International Day of Cooperatives
3 July – International Plastic Bag Free Day
5 July – World Youth Skills Day
7 July – Global Forgiveness Day
11 July – World Population Day
17 July – World Day for International Justice
28 July – World Nature Conservation Day
30 July – World Day against Trafficking in Persons
Monthly Observances:
Schools Safety Month
Nutrition Month
National Disaster Consciousness Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 2: Cultural Communities Week
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise
Development Week
Week 3: National Science and
Technology Week
National Disability Prevention and
Rehabilitation Week
July 1-7:
National Culture Consciousness Week
July 13-19:
Philippines Business Week
Week ending last Saturday of July:
Arbor Week
Daily Observances:
First Saturday of July:
International Cooperative Day
in the Philippines
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