Asian Energy Advisors

As late as yesterday, important changes and debates are happening in the French power markets - and it’s very relevant to the Philippines.

Utilities who own generation and Traders who do not are battling it out on public disclosure of daily generation data and the need for more transparency in the markets.

The French Electricity Association asserts:

Transparency is vital for the development of the electricity market, as it improves visibility for the various players involved.

Barclays Capital in London (a trader) said today in an interview.

“We need to see data for past production on a plant-by-plant basis to truly understand the drivers of prices,”

Marcel Melis, chief executive officer of Energy Capital Management BV:

Daily data “is good information, especially for companies trading in the spot market,”

From the article:

European countries including Spain, the U.K. and Sweden disclose information about individual plants on Web sites. In countries without public plant information, traders who work for power companies have an edge because they get early alerts when generators shut down and start up.

Yes. This discussion needs to be taking place right here in the Philippines. Even though trading hasn’t yet taken off; we need to be laying the groundwork to enable it.