U.K. government grants TA to ERC
The U.K. government granted a technical assistance (TA) for the development of the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) market monitoring systems and procedures. The TA, entitled “Capacity Building Assistance for the ERC”, was made possible through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Global Opportunities Fund for Economic Governance. It is intended to enhance the technical capability of the Spot Market Division (SMD) in regulating the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) operations by way of setting up the ERC’s own market monitoring system and procedures and by extensive training and workshop.
Equipped with extensive consulting experience in the deregulation of wholesale and retail energy market, the EA Technology was tapped for the pertained TA. The first phase of the TA kicked-off last 21 February 2006. “The Philippine electricity industry is fortunate to be provided with insights and experiences of experts from the UK and other countries world wide,” Chairman Rodolfo B. Albano, Jr. exclaimed.
Mr. Andrew Jackson and Mr. John Bennett are the technical advisors for the said TA. Mr. Jackson worked for the UK electricity regulator, the Victorian Power Exchange and a range of senior consulting roles including the development of regulatory policies with respect to the England and Wales Pool, among others. Mr. Benett, on the other hand, has a strong utility industry background within the retail sector and in a variety of senior consulting roles in the UK and continental Europe. He holds both a BSC in Mathematics and MSC in Mathematical modeling and computer simulation.
Part of the TA involves a series of market monitoring discussions as well as experiences of other electricity markets in the evolution and implementation of market monitoring processes around the world. Highlighting the first phase of the TA was the installation and an initial walk-through on the NEO software, which will serve as the core monitoring analysis tool for the ERC. The NEO is a powerful data analysis and visualization tool, which was developed by Intelligent Energy Systems (IES) specifically to handle complex data from multiple sources in real time. The NEO was initially developed for the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM) and is now also being utilized to display and analyze data in other electricity markets. An intensive hands-on training on the NEO software will be conducted during their final visit before the end of March 2006.
“The ERC, specifically its Spot Market Division, is grateful for the said TA from the U.K. government,” the ERC Chair said. “The TA is a significantly important preparation to ERC’s role of monitoring the behavior and conduct of all participants in the commercial operation of the WESM,” Chairman Albano concluded.