The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has ordered the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC), the governance body of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), to finally lift the spot trading suspension for the Bohol segment enforced roughly two months ago.
The regulatory body stipulated that the WESM market operator was already allowed to resume spot market operations for Bohol since February 10 this year.
“The directive was made after the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines – Visayas System Operations reported that the 138-kilovolt Maasin-Ubay line was energized on February 9 at 4:03pm,” the ERC noted.
That development, it explained, enabled Bohol Island to be resynchronized or connected back to the Visayas grid starting at 5:54pm on Wednesday (February 9).
To recall, WESM trading had been suspended for Bohol and the whole of Visayas grid on December 16 last year – that was following the devastation of typhoon Odette that pummeled many areas in the region and had damaged power facilities which then resulted in prolonged blackout incidents.
For the Visayas grid, market suspension was lifted last January 17, but the ERC specified then that the resumption of WESM trading excluded Bohol yet -- because at the time, that island remains isolated from the grid.
According to ERC Chairperson Agnes T. Devanadera, the Commission “has been closely monitoring the situation in Bohol; and the recent resynchronization is a welcome development.”
Taking cue from that, she indicated that the ERC was prompted on “lifting the market suspension in Bohol to ensure sustainable power supply and help in the province’s economic recovery after the devastation caused by typhoon Odette.”
Relative to the Commission’s directive, Devanadera conveyed that PEMC has already been directed, through a notice, to inform its consigned market operator to recommence WESM trading for Bohol.
“The lifting of market suspension due to the completion of the Maasin-Ubay line will enable the exportation of power to Bohol and will mean a more stable power for the electricity consumers in the area,” the ERC chief stressed.
In the strike of natural calamities that could disrupt trading or transaction flow in the spot market, the ERC is sanctioned by law and prevailing rules to declare WESM trading suspension.
The regulatory body’s Resolution No. 12 series of 2018, in particular, prescribes the rules on the warranted declaration of market suspension or temporary market failure, as well as the subsequent resumption of WESM operations when the obstruction or disturbing developments would already wane or cease.