Co-ops prodded to participate in electricity spot market

CEBU/TACLOBAN — Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras has tasked all agencies under the Department of Energy to help come up with an interim structure that will address the concerns of electric cooperatives in the Visayas and encourage them to participate in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

Officials of each agency met with representatives of some electric cooperatives in Cebu yesterday afternoon for initial discussions. Mr. Almendras told journalists here that he was optimistic that “the meeting would be productive.”

In Tacloban, the Association of Visayas Electric Cooperatives (AVEC) yesterday reiterated fears that the planned commercial operation of WESM in the Visayas — targeted towards yearend — would cause electricity prices to spike. Emmanuel P. Saño, general manager of Don Vicente Orestes Romualdez Electric Cooperative and president of AVEC, said the group expects the price increase but could not anticipate how consumers would react.

“Price hike is… the concern of all rural electric cooperatives in the Visayas. We still have to convene before we can come up with our decision on the pricing issue,” Mr. Saño said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Saño also noted that other issues like insufficient power capacity in the Visayas would result in volatile, high prices.

The Web site of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines yesterday showed that the Visayas grid was short by 32 megawatts, from -210 MW last Monday. “Our concern is to come up with adequate reserves before the spot market could start to operate,” Mr. Saño said.

Mario R. Pangilinan, head of corporate planning and communications of WESM operator Philippine Electricity Market Corp., said more than half of the projected participants in the spot market have yet to register. — Marites S. Villamor in Cebu and Reyan L. Arinto in Tacloban, Businessworld