THE Energy Regulatory Commission will temporarily suspend the operation of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market on the occasion that a red alert was declared by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines , said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday, May 1, 2024.“Dahil sa matinding init, tumataas ang konsumo ng kuryente na nakakadagdag sa pag-akyat ng presyo,” Marcos said in his speech during the commemoration of the 122nd Labor Day.
The WESM, which was created under Republic Act 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, is a venue for trading electricity as a commodity.Under WESM, power generators sell their excess capacities not covered by contracts and where the customers buy additional capacities on top of their contracts.Power outages are being experienced intermittently in various parts of the country as power systems overload due to the increase in demand brought about by the extreme heat and dry spell.