Mindanao will be part of WESM by 2010

Mindanao will be part of the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) by 2010, a ranking energy official said yesterday.

"We have decided not to include Mindanao in the WESM in the next five years because we believe the submission of bids coming from this area would be difficult," Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) president Lasse Holopainen said.

"There is difficulty in the way the hydro power plants are structured in this area. Take for instance the structure of the Angus power plants. There would be no real bidding as Angus IV can bid while Angus I, which is not working, can not participate in the bidding," he said.

One factor that hinders Mindanao from joining the WESM is the transmission constraint.

The government has yet to approve the transmission linkage between Visayas to Mindanao through the Leyte-Mindanao Interconnection Project (LMIP).

National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) president Alan T. Ortiz has been emphasizing that the LMIP is crucial to complete the country’s transmission loop and get ready for the open access.

Open access is expected to come six months after the commercial operation of the WESM.

Ortiz said this project is also critical in the implementation of the WESM which is expected to start this month.

The LMIP, Ortiz said, is also crucial in the delivery of geothermal power from Leyte to other parts of the country.

TransCo has been convincing government authorities to reconsider their position on the LMIP as this is necessary for the implementation of WESM in Mindanao.

"The energization of Leyte-Cebu interconnection project made it possible for the WESM to start its pilot project. They also want to implement it for Mindanao, which reinforce my position for Leyte-Mindanao," Ortiz said.

TransCo had earlier proposed for the speeding up of the implementation of the LMIP to 2008 from earlier scheduled 2011 to help resolve the imminent power shortage in Mindanao region.

The government decided to defer the implementation of the P18 billion interconnection project in 2002 due to some financial constraints.

TransCo will conduct another feasibility study to encourage the government to push through with the project.

The LMIP was supposed to be included in the list of projects that the ADB will finance for 2003.

But the multilateral financial institution reportedly cancelled the project after the government raised its intention to defer it.