DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The Department of Energy (DOE) is gearing for smart grid market technology on power sector in the country to empower electricity consumers using the information communication technology gadgets.
Smart grid refers to a class of technology people are using to bring utility electricity delivery systems into the 21st century, using computer-based remote control and automation. “Smart grid will empower you as smartphone users to control your gadgets,” DOE undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella pointed out.
Fuentebella said information is vital for productivity. “We cannot develop a well-informed decision maker in the consumer without knowing how much the generators are producing, whether it is conventional or renewable. We cannot empower them if they don’t know how the transmission works,” he added.
The technology is expected to promote fairness and transparency on the part of the consumers, and accountability on the part of service and generation providers. “We have to develop a market that embraces a system that has transparency, fair in the field and accountability, the fault if there is a problem on the power distribution will be now pinpointed,” he said.
The DOE said that the requirements is to have a spot market and renewable energy market (REM). As soon as the technology will be implemented in the country, there will be a system operator and market operator to handle it.
Fuentebella said the DOE is now conducting a series of consultation for the REM in the Philippines which they started last Tuesday in Davao City. For the other parts of Mindanao, the DOE is hastening things since the island still have no electricity sport market. The spot market is a requirement for the REM and both markets are needed for the smart gird.
The DOE has targeted to open the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in Mindanao on June2018 to catch up on the proposed smart grid.-Armando B. Fenequito Jr.
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