Francis Saturnino Juan has been named by Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos Jr as the new head of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), effective 8 August, the office of the president announced on Thursday.
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Juan currently leads the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP), which operates the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the country’s trading floor for electricity.
Renewable energy firms in the country currently sell power directly through WESM, where dispatching energy generation is dependent on which power company makes the lowest bid.
A law graduate of the University of the Philippines, Juan previously served as executive director and general counsel of the ERC.
“With his deep institutional knowledge and leadership, we are confident that chairperson Juan will steer the ERC toward more efficient, transparent, and pro-consumer decision-making,” the office of the president said in a statement.
Juan’s appointment comes at a time when the Philippines’ Department of Energy (DOE) has been easing energy investment restrictions by introducing a competitive auction system to attract funding.
The DOE released in March the terms of reference for the fourth round of the Green Energy Auction Programme (GEAP), bidding 10,478 megawatts (MW) of capacity from solar, onshore wind, and integrated energy storage technologies, following the last auction held in February, which was oversubscribed.
GEAP is one of the policies put in place to help the country achieve the goals set under the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, which aims to reach a 35 per cent renewable energy target by 2030. ERC is in charge of setting the price for the renewable energy capacities for bidding.
Juan replaces outgoing ERC chief Monalisa Dimalanta who resigned from her post as chair on Monday, cutting short her seven-year term. The DOE assured that the ERC would not see any energy policy shifts despite Dimalanta’s sudden departure.
