Cognizant of the importance of nurturing the youth of today towards building a brighter future for the nation, IEMOP launched its OPLAN e-SKWELA campaign – an initiative which aims to empower the next generation of industry leaders by enabling access to quality education amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, IEMOP segregated company laptops which are no longer used for its market operations and donated them to the students from the Philippine Science High School (PSHS) System in Quezon City who have limited access to technology for their online learning activities. To further amplify the result of this initiative, IEMOP also sought the support of its employees through their contribution of new or used gadgets such as laptops, tablets, and other online learning-related accessories. Meanwhile, IEMOP employees responded by raising funds to purchase Android tablets and other gadgets for deserving students. On 14 October, IEMOP successfully turned over 21 laptops and 24 tablets donated by the IEMOP Board, Management and employees to PSHS – represented by Mr. Rod Allan A. De Lara, Deputy Executive Director, and Ms. Lilia T. Habacon, Executive Director. Alongside this, essential gadget accessories were also given to PSHS on that day. In the coming days, IEMOP will continue with its thrust to empower young Filipinos in order to further contribute to the creation of a better, brighter, and more inclusive future for the Philippines.

Following the official launch of the Enhanced WESM Design Parallel Operations Program: Fast-Forward to Five Campaign and the conduct of Market Participants’ Update: Sustaining Momentum, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) continues to deliver efficient market management and services despite the ongoing implementation of the community quarantine in various areas in Luzon and Visayas. Through its utilization of online platforms, the Market Operator remains in constant coordination with its participants and stakeholders as it apprises them on the market results of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) as well as the latest developments within the power industry.   MARKET OUTCOMES Given the implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in some areas, the system demand dipped during the period 16 March to 15 May 2020 due to the limited operations of establishments. During this ECQ period, the lowest system peak demand recorded 10,033 MW, which occurred in April 2020. This was a 24% reduction from the peak demand level of the previous month. The average price during the ECQ period was only 1.55 P/kWh because of the ample supply margin. The system demand rose at the onset of June due to the transition to General Community Quarantine (GCQ) of the other areas from ECQ. However, supply margin levels tightened at the earlier part of the month due to natural gas supply restrictions and some major plant outages which triggered several high prices that resulted in a monthly average price of 3.19 P/kWh for June 2020. Moving forward, an adequate supply margin was observed during the month of July which resulted in an average price of 2.08 P/kWh. There was a slight increase in the supply levels at the start of the billing month as more generators came online. Since a number of areas remain to be under GCQ, a relatively lower system demand was reported. In fact, last 13 July, demand dipped due to colder weather conditions brought about by tropical depression “Carina”. There were price spikes encountered on 23 July due to planned and forced outages of major plants which then resulted in a thin supply margin. A decreasing demand was also observed on the latter part of July considering the rainy season and observance of Eid’l Adha on 31 July. In line with the clamor raised by the medical frontliners, the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) was implemented once again along major parts of Luzon. With the reduction in commercial activities, peak demand was observed to decrease by 696 MW for the first week of MECQ in comparison to the two weeks prior to its resumption. Furthermore, compared to the beginning of Q2 last year, system peak demand decreased by 22.3% which is equivalent to 2,885 MW. The peak demand is gradually approaching its 2019 demand levels with only a 3.4% or 424 MW difference from the previous year particularly for the month of August 2020. Overall, given the limited operations of establishments and industries, market prices remained low despite some intervals with price spikes which were attributed to supply restrictions and plant outages as noted previously.   MARKET DEMOGRAPHICS To date, there are 278 registered WESM members: 135 Generation Companies, 19 private Distribution Utilities (DUs), 71 Electric Cooperatives (ECs), 52 Directly-Connected Customers (DCCs), and 1 Wholesale Aggregator. As for the retail level, there are 33 Retail Electricity Suppliers (RES), 14 Local RES, 25 Supplier of Last Resort (SOLR), 54 Retail Metering Service Providers (RMSPs) and 1,469 contestable customers (33-DCC and 1436-connected to DU). As of 26 July, there have been a total of 463 supplier switches since the start of RCOA. During the period of June to July 2020, IEMOP processed an additional 7 initial customer switches and 17 regular customer switches. Moreover, in terms of energy consumption, CCs also recovered in June and July increasing to 21 and 22% of the total consumption from a low of 17% of the total consumption last April 2020. Despite the implementation of the community quarantine, Retail Electricity Suppliers remained highly active in engaging contestable customers with 104 switches for the past five months.   MARKET DEVELOPMENTS: WESM MINDANAO The Go Live target for the Enhanced WESM Design (5-minute Market) by end of December this year remains on-track with the completion of Performance Tuning of the NMMS. Significant progress has already been made by IEMOP to ensure that the new market systems are ready for the commercial launch of WESM in Mindanao. This includes the completion of its systems performance tuning, improvement of the market systems, and the conduct of the audit for its recent enhancements and fixes on the new market systems. Likewise, the Market Operator has re-launched the Trial Operations Program and has brought the campaign online through the EWDO POP Hub located within IEMOP’s website to ensure that the WESM Mindanao Stakeholders are up-to-date and ready to perform their responsibilities in the WESM. In terms of WESM registration for Mindanao, most of the Grid Generators have been registered and almost all Electric Cooperatives and Private DUs are also completing their registration. However, registration of embedded generators and several directly connected customers remains to be the challenge. IEMOP is currently engaging them in coordination with the DOE. As the registration drive continues, the Market Operator also calls for proactive participation in the submission of trial offers and MW nominations in the Market Participant Interface. Although the recent re-launch brought about some improvements with regard to the engagement of the Mindanao stakeholders, IEMOP intends to sustain the pace by preparing a series of activities and engagements to further prepare the participants in time for the launching of the WESM in Mindanao.

Paving the way for a progressive market, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) conducted its second Market Participants’ Update (MPU) for the year in fulfilment of its mission of providing sustainable and innovative market solutions and services to its stakeholders and participants. Similar to its previous MPU and other engagements, the event was conducted online in compliance with the health protocols being implemented to minimize the spread of the COVID-19 virus. With the theme “Future of the Market”, the participants were apprised of the Market Performance under the general community quarantine and IEMOPs initiatives in shaping the future of the market. “To date, IEMOP remains involved in the implementation of new policies and regulations as well as in the development of new market mechanisms to foster a more dynamic power market for our participants,” IEMOP President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Nethercott emphasized. Likewise, the event was attended by Assistant Secretary Redentor E. Delola of the Department of Energy who addressed the participants regarding the milestones and anticipated activities within the energy industry. Market Operations Highlights The presentations started with the updates on the market operations highlights which reported generation capacity of around 17,208MW in Luzon and approximately 3,665MW in Visayas. Coal power plants continue to dominate the generation mix with 43% of the total registered capacity versus the remaining sources namely natural gas, hydro, oil-based, geothermal, solar, biomass, wind, and energy storage. The effective settlement spot price (ESSP) for October 2020 is 2,066.74 Php/MWh with 12% of the total energy traded sourced from the market. IEMOP also noted the on-going development for the interfacing of IEMOP’s Central Registration and Settlement System (CRSS) with the Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop (EVOSS) system. The EVOSS system (https://www.evoss.ph/) under the Department of Energy, which went operational last 24 July 2020, refers to an online system that allows the coordinated submission and synchronous processing of all required data and information, and provides a single decision-making portal for actions on applications for permits and/or certifications necessary for, or related to, an application of a proponent for new power generation, transmission, or distribution projects. IEMOP is guided by the advisories issued by the DOE and ERC on the implementation of Republic Act No. 11494 or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act regarding payment extension timelines. By way of compliance with DOE Advisory dated 23 September 2020 and ERC Advisory dated 29 October 2020, IEMOP issued its own advisory on 3 November 2020 providing the guidelines in relation to WESM settlements.   RCOA LOWER CONTESTABILITY THRESHOLD IMPLEMENTATION AND OTHER MARKET DEVELOPMENTS IEMOP also appraised the participants on the latest development on Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA). In October 2020, ERC released a draft resolution prescribing the timeline for the implementation of retail competition and open access. Under the draft resolution, the contestability threshold will be reduced to 500 kW on 26 February 2021. This will be followed by reduction to 100 kW on 26 January 2022, which will also mark the start of retail aggregation. Finally, the draft ERC resolution provides for the implementation of RCOA at the household level on 26 January 2023. A 10 kW threshold, however, is provided in the draft ERC resolution for household-level implementation. In anticipation of the lowering of contestability threshold, IEMOP has submitted a proposal in 2018 which introduces changes to retail market processes that would enable the Central Registration Body to better handle the significant volume of retail transactions. Under IEMOP’s 2018 proposal, WESM registration of contestable customers will be optional for those that would opt to purchase part of their requirements directly from the spot market as Direct WESM Members. This set-up is also proposed in cases when the contestability threshold is reduced further given the significant volume of retail transaction. Currently, all contestable customers are required to register in the WESM, most of which are Indirect WESM Members. In terms of metering, the Retail Rules require interval metering at 5-minute resolution. This requirement is proposed to be relaxed to any metering interval (i.e. 1-hour, 30-minutes, 15-minutes). To minimize the cost of participating in the retail market, use of existing non-interval meters is also proposed when the threshold is reduced further. In these cases, profiling is proposed to be performed by the Central Registration Body to convert the submitted metering data to 5-minute data for WESM settlement. With the increasing number of contestable customers and to reduce requirements for RCOA participation, IEMOP further proposed in 2018 to streamline the documentary requirements for switching. IEMOP is currently performing studies to develop detailed proposals for lower threshold implementation. For the 4th quarter of 2020, IEMOP targets to complete studies on the overall CRB implementation framework, profiling of non-interval meters, and retail aggregation. Finally, the roster of presentations also includes discussion on the impending commercial launch of the Enhanced WESM Design and Operations (EWDO) which was set to change the landscape of the Philippine Electricity Trading. IEMOP noted that its Market Systems are ready for the implementation of the EWDO. Anent other criteria for EWDO’s commercial launch, IEMOP is continuously working with stakeholders and participants in achieving necessary regulatory and policy approvals as well as the overall market readiness. “We endeavor to retain our very satisfactory rating based on the PEMC Market Operator Performance Status Report and continuously improve our processes to give participants the service they deserve,” IEMOP’s Chief Operating Officer and Acting Trading Head Robinson Descanzo said. Together with the participants and stakeholders, IEMOP looks forward to powering a brighter future for the energy market which shall in turn, contribute to the overall growth and progress of the nation.

As part of our continuing effort in ensuring that stakeholders are ready for the implementation of the Enhanced WESM Design and Operations (EWDO), the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) is organizing several Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with Market Participants. This activity aims to brief the participants on the timeline, updates, way forward, and their readiness checklist leading to the EWDO target Go-Live. Participation reports on the Parallel Operations Program (POP) shall also be discussed to address any concerns and issues regarding the EWDO. For the months of February and March 2021, more FGDs shall be organized to cover all Market Participants. For inquiries, please send us an email at events@iemop.ph .