Funds lack delays M’danao power spot mart

MANILA, Philippines - The implementation of an interim electricity market (IMEM) in Mindanao will be delayed anew due to budget constraints, the country’s top energy official said.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said the IMEM was supposed to take off late last year but was moved again to March this year as they await the budget to be approved by the power regulators.

Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), a government-run company which operates the country’s electricity spot market, has a pending petition with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to allocate about P34.3 million of its budget to finance the IMEM operations.

But Petilla said the ERC has yet to rule on PEMC’s petition.

“The funds are there with PEMC to commence with the infrastructure, the problem is we can’t touch it because we don’t have any ERC approval yet,” he said.

A further delay in IMEM implementation would likely aggravate the power supply shortage in Mindanao.

IMEM, as envisioned by the DOE, would help alleviate the power gap in the region.

“We have stressed to ERC and I’m quite sure they’re also aware of the problem of Mindanao and even they are assuring PEMC that they will prioritize the ERC approval of the budget. The money is already there, what we’re asking is a go signal to touch it,” Petilla said.

The DOE earlier said the planned electricity market can add more than 350 megawatts (MW) of available output in electricity-starved Mindanao.