THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has lifted the suspension of settlement amounts in the reserve market after the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. and the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) complied with directives for the evaluation of their application for the proposed amended price determination method (PDM).
The ERC said the lifting of the suspension paves the way for the resumption of full operations of trading of reserves in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) for contracted and merchant plants, thereby improving grid security.
This is expected to result in an upward pressure in monthly power rates as there are charges yet to be collected from consumers.
The energy reserves market was suspended by the ERC last March as its operations pushed power rates up.
Last May, the ERC partially lifted the suspension on settlement amounts in the reserve market to allow power generators partial recovery of costs for trading transactions for the March billing month of this year.
The move allowed power generators to recover an initial P1.7 billion or 30 percent from the total P5.7 billion.
Generators are yet to charge the remaining P4 billion to consumers pending an official order from the ERC.
ERC has ordered the IEMOP to recalculate the resulting reserve trading amounts for the billing periods of February and March of 2024 and adjust the value for the remaining 70 percent for the March billing month using the amended PDM.
The PDM is the mechanism established for determining the prices and settlements in the WESM.
