PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. launched the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in Mindanao which will bolster investments and economic activity, particularly in manufacturing and other energy-intensive industries that will also generate jobs and opportunities in the region.
“The presence of WESM in Mindanao and an interconnected and interdependent grid in the country will not only ensure a level playing field in the competitive energy market but will also provide assurance to investors,” PBBM stated during the ceremonial launching of the WESM in the Mindanao Grid in Malacañang on Monday, February 6, 2023.
“WESM will help in sustaining power generation investments to meet the ever-growing electricity demand and it will establish a competitive, efficient, transparent and reliable market for electricity and it is a centralized venue for trading electricity for large-scale buyers and sellers,” he emphasized.
“We hope to integrate the three main grids in the WESM, so that the country can hopefully achieve its goal of having a joint WESM for the entire nation and of attaining total capacity for the Philippines’ power demands.”
Mindanao has an electrification rate of 87 percent and WESM in Mindanao will have a crucial role in the successful operation of the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project (MVIP) as WESM allows efficient transmission and settlement of electricity exchanges.
At present, Mindanao has 4,321 megawatts of registered capacity, while its peak demand is only at around 2,167 megawatts.
With the establishment of WESM in Mindanao, around 2,000 megawatts of uncontracted capacities can now be sold in the WESM and be dispatched at any given time, providing supply to distribution utilities, electric cooperatives and other end-users when their contracted power plants are not available.
The government established WESM in Luzon in 2006, making the Philippines the first developing nation in Asia to introduce WESM successfully.
In 2010, WESM in the Visayas was also established.
