Blazing a trail
By JENNEE GRACE U. RUBRICO, Senior Reporter
Lasse-Matti A. Holopainen appears to have his job cut out for him.
As president of the Philippine Electricity Market Corp., the firm set
up to run the wholesale electricity spot market, he is expected to
blaze a trail in introducing the untried concept of trading electricity
in the Philippine market.
Pursuant to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, the Philippine
Electricity Market Corp. is tasked to supervise the preparations and
consequent operations of the spot market, which aims to be the venue for
trading of electricity between generators and suppliers -- as well as
wholesale consumers -- thus promote competition in electricity
production and supply.
Three months after the firm was incorporated in September, Mr.
Holopainen, who was then Energy assistant secretary, was named the
firm's first president. Five months into his job, Mr. Holopainen is
occupied with setting up shop and putting in place the framework needed
for the operations of the spot market. "Preparations are being made
across the board," he said.
Among the more urgent preparations, Mr. Holopainen said, is making
sure that the hardware and software requirements are delivered by May.
"This would give us time to debug the system before trial operations in
December," he said.
Attached to the delivery of the system is training the market
operator and the industry participants on the actual trading of
electricity in the spot market, Mr. Holopainen said.
Dialogues with other stakeholders, such as the local government, also have to be conducted, he said.
"They are also dependent on electricity and have to understand
opportunities. Those are the imperatives we have to put in place," Mr.
Holopainen said.
A Filipino/Finnish national, Mr. Holopainen grew up in the Visayas
and finished his BSc. Management (Honor's Program) at the Ateneo De
Manila University. He took his Masters in Business Administration at the
Fontainebleau, France campus of INSEAD.
A finance person for most of his professional life, the 36-year-old
Mr. Holopainen worked with Real Venture Asia Ltd., Schroders
International Merchant Bankers Ltd., and Andersen Consulting, among
others, before joining the government in 2001 as assistant secretary for
investments at the Department of Energy.
As energy assistant secretary, Mr. Holopainen was in charge of
investor liaison, investment facilitation, interagency coordination and
investor policy, a post he kept until he was given his present job.
Mr. Holopainen said compared with his job as energy assistant secretary, his job now is more focused.
He describes his management style as "laid back."
"My philosophy is if people know what they're working towards, they
will do their best to work towards that goal. I just stay out of
people's way to get their job done. Long discussions don't usually get
anything done. I have good employees. The staff is very good and
talented in their different fields. I'm doing more of a coordination
job, to make sure that the job is done on time, on budget para walang maiwan (so that nothing is left behind)," he said.
Having worked with both the private sector and the government, Mr.
Holopainen said that his work experience helps him understand the
concerns of both sectors on the operations of the spot market. "The
market is a mix of private firms and government. I can understand
concerns from both sectors. I know how the private sector work and their
concern but I also understand government. And [the firm] really is in
between government and the private sector. I can handle two very
different cultures," he said.
Mr. Holopainen acknowledges the difficulties in setting up an
electricity spot market, noting that electricity spot markets in other
countries have failed.
He also admits that contrary to the buildup by other government
officials and advocates of a restructured power sector, the system is
not a panacea for high power rates and other power-related problems.
What the spot market could do, he said, is provide "clarity" and
"transparency" in the pricing of electricity rates. "I could say let's
build a perfect market, but that's not doable. I could say, let's try to
bring down costs of electricity, but that's not the job of the market.
The market is a mirror to show you the truth. It should be built in such
way that it would be clear and transparent," he said.
Mr. Holopainen remains optimistic that despite the limitations under
which the spot market will be operating, the scheme will work.
"My outlook for the [electricity spot market] is very good. What we
are trying to do is verging on the impossible. There's no market that
has been successful and we have a lot of issues as a country. But we
will deliver this [market] and if we get the support of stakeholders the
stakeholders have to buy into it 100%. Once in place, it will provide
important new economic outlet or venue and that will really help in
terms of our industry restructuring," he said.
