ACEN Corp., the Ayala Group’s listed energy company, said over the weekend it received full compliance certification from Intelligent Energy Systems (IES) for its energy trading platform.
ACEN said this endorsement not only underscores its adherence to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) standards but also positions the company as the first in the country to secure such validation from the renowned Australian advisory firm.
ACEN said its trading platform, developed with the help of a local third-party software developer, enables the company to seamlessly integrate its growing renewable portfolio into the WESM.
WESM is the trading floor of electricity, facilitating generator offers and nominations, monitoring real-time schedules of all its Philippine assets and obtaining WESM data.
“This certification reflects our proactive approach towards transparency and compliance in our software system as we lead the industry through innovation. Our stakeholders can trust in our platform’s capability to deliver not only transparency but also efficiency,” ACEN chief operating officer for Philippine operations Miguel de Jesus said.
ACEN enhanced the platform in 2021 in direct response to WESM’s transition from an hourly to a five-minute trading dispatch, a move that emphasizes its foresight in the rapidly evolving energy market.
The rigorous IES assessment affirmed that ACEN’s trading platform is fully aligned with the Philippine Grid Code, WESM’s rules and dispatch protocols and market manuals in terms of disclosure and confidentiality and the participation in the WESM.
“In our recent audit of ACEN’s energy trading platform, we are pleased to announce that the platform has been certified to comply with the operational requirements of WESM’s market participant interface,” IES chief executive Michelle Bannister said.
“ACEN is the first market participant in the Philippines to have received software compliance certification from IES. It establishes ACEN’s credibility as a market player in the Philippines electricity market,” said Bannister.
WESM operates under market rules as approved by the Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to ensure that the objectives of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (RA 9136) are achieved.
ACEN said its compliance with the market rules is a significant stride towards realizing these objectives, with the aim to be a catalyst for progress and sustainability in the Philippine power industry.
IES is an Australia-based advisory and consulting firm which has a proven software certification methodology that has been used in the compliance of different software systems and processes implemented by electricity market operators and market players.
IES has audited electricity markets throughout the Pacific region with its extensive experience in electricity market audits.
