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The Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC) as the governance arm of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), is expected to make sure that transactions in the electricity market are fair and transparent. With Department Circular (DC) No. DC2024-06-0019 entitled, "Adopting Further Amendments to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) Rules and WESM Manual on Dispatch Protocol, and Creation of WESM Manual on Ancillary Services Monitoring regarding Reserve Market Compliance and related Enforcement and Actions,” the Department of Energy (DOE) has directed PEMC to expand its compliance and market monitoring with the Reserve Market, which was launched in January this year. After the suspension of settlement amounts by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in April, it is expected to commence operations this third quarter of 2024. 

In its Annual General Membership Meeting (AGMM) last month, PEMC reported a total excess of expenses over revenue of a little over PHP 90 million in its financial report. As a non-stock, non-profit corporation, PEMC intends to file an application with the ERC for approval of supplemental market fees to fund this capital expansion. This is urgently needed to augment operations in the monitoring of the Reserve Market, which will require additional manpower and equipment. As it stands, PEMC's share in the approved annual market fees of PHP 200 million received in 2023 will not be sufficient to cover the costs required for expanding operations.

PEMC’s governance function of the WESM plays an integral role in making sure prices of electricity are stable in the country and provides the ERC with a regulatory framework to support in the governance of the electricity market. The company has been operating on a deficit since the approval of market fees have been subject to delays. This is caused by backlogs and reinstituted market fees that were based on previous years’ approvals by the ERC.

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