The country's power market operator and independent energy think tank have launched a three-year research alliance to strengthen evidence-based policymaking and support local electricity market development.

The Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) said on Thursday that it signed a memorandum of understanding with Philippine Energy Research and Policy Institute (PERPI) to jointly study electricity market operations, power market design, renewable energy integratio, and sustainable energy transition.

PEMC, the governing body of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, said the partnership will combine market expertise with independent academic research to help improve policy discussions.

“This partnership combines an in-depth understanding of the market with independent academic research. By grounding policy discussions in rigorous, data-driven analytics, we can better support a competitive, transparent, and resilient electricity market,” PEMC President and WESM Governance Officer Elvin Hayes E. Nidea said.

Under the agreement, PEMC will provide PERPI with access to non-confidential, aggregated, anonymized, and publicly releasable market data for approved research projects.

The deal requires research topics to undergo mutual approval before data requests are processed, while information obtained under the partnership will be used exclusively for research, academic and policy analysis, excluding commercial, adjudicatory, lobbying and advocacy purposes.

Both institutions also committed to comply with the Data Privacy Act of 2012 through the execution of non-disclosure agreements for designated researchers.

Apart from producing research papers and policy briefs, the partnership will include joint workshops, roundtable discussions, and knowledge-sharing sessions for technical expertise and responsible energy workforce development.