MANILA, July 21 (PNA) — Retail market participants registered at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) have grown to 428 from 240 last year driven by the surge of contestable customers (CCs), market-operator Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC) said.
”On its second year of commercial operations, the retail market reflected an increase in registered participants from the initial registration of 275 to 428,” PEMC said in a statement Tuesday.
PEMC noted the 371 CCs comprised of the 428 participants; WESM initially had 240 CC participants last year, up by 54.58 percent.
PEMC pinpointed MPower as the largest supplier for CCs, along with its large energy sales volume.
Contestable Customers, with their huge power requirements, have the option where to source their capacity, compared to captive customers who have to rely on their distribution utilities.
PEMC mentioned another 18 applicants have applied to become CCs.
Melinda Ocampo, PEMC president, further expects the retail market to expand with the lowering of the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) threshold that lowers the power requirements to become a CC.
“We expect the expansion of the retail market with the release of the DOE circular as this officially lowers the threshold for contestable customers from a minimum of 1 MW consumption to 750 kW,” she said.
Another 15 parties have applied to source power from the WESM, coming as a Retail Metering Service Provider (5), Retail Electricity Supplier (4), Local Retail Electricity Supplier (2) and Supplier of Last Resort (4).
Meanwhile, PEMC disclosed the effective spot settlement prices (ESSPs) for the contestable market have gone down from Php4.27 per kilowatthour (kWh) last year to PhP2.91/kWh this year due to the implementation of the WESM Secondary Price Cap.
It also stressed the settlement transaction rates at the WESM was lower for CCs than captive customers.
Ocampo added PEMC looks forward to next year, for the lowering of the RCOA threshold from 1 Megawatt (MW) to 750 kilowatts (kW).
”We look forward to a very promising 3rd year of operations as we gear up for the appropriate market design to accommodate the lowering of retail market threshold from 1MW to 750kW,” she said.
PEMC started the commercial operations of the retail market on June 26, 2013 through the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA), backed by the Department of Energy (DOE), which grants customers who have a power demand of 1 MW or more to become CCs. (PNA)