Well, yes and no. In a sense, PSALM is part of WESM since they are on the Board – and it is the Board that will be making determinations on this issue.
The Secretary of Energy said Friday that:
“… the Market Surveillance Committee (MSC) [a Board Committee] … which monitors market activities and [will] assist the PEM Board in investigating … breaches of the WESM rules and anti-competitive behavior of market participants.”
Indeed, from the WESM website: “It is the MSC that shall conduct investigations on any unusual and suspicious behavior or activities of WESM members in the spot market, suspected breaches of the WESM Rules, and any alleged anti-competitive behavior.”
Here are the MSC members as of June 2006:
- Danilo P. Mercado, Sr. – Consultant (Electrical Engineer)
- Peter L. Wallace – President Wallace Business Forum (BSC Technology)
- Rolando A. Danao – Professor at U.P. (PhD. Mathematics, PhD Econometrics)
- Fernando A. Dumuk – Managing Dir. of Alpha Power Technologies Corp. (Electrical Engineer)
The MSC is supposed to have five members. I’m not sure if they’ve filled the fifth slot yet.
But here’s the rub. The Secretary has suggested that this Committee will “assist” the Board in the Board’s it its determination. A question arises, of course, as to whether the Board will make a finding that is different from the Committee’s?
So who is on the Board? For the life of me I cannot find a list of specific names that constitute the Board, although there are lots of references to directives specifying the general corporate make-up.
It’s my understanding that Secretary Lotilla is Chairman of the PEMC Board. Based on my readings, I’m going to guess that the other members include people representing:
- NAPOCOR
- TRANSCO
- PSALM
- 4 representatives from Distribution companies
- 4 representatives from the IPPs
- 1 representative for the “customer” group
- Philippine Independent Power Producers Association (PIPPA)
- Philippine Electric Plant Owners Association (PEPOA)
- Philippine Ecozones Association (PHILEA)
- Institute of Electrical Engineers of the Philippines (IIEE)
That’s an estimated total of 17 people on the Board – there may be an additional two rural electric cooperative representatives in addition to the 4 distribution companies – it’s not clear to me.
I wonder if PSALM will inhibit themselves from proceedings dealing with the investigation? How much of the MSC’s findings will we hear about? The Committee must be very dependent on the WESM staff itself – so I’m assuming a lot of the findings will be a function of the staff’s capabilities too.
We will, of course, be following this as things develop.
[photos from WESM]
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