Daily power demand in Luzon hits highest since June

The two-week return to stricter community quarantine implemented last August in Metro Manila and adjacent provinces lopped off about 700 megawatts (MW) from the daily peak demand for power in the Luzon grid, according to the operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.

Even then, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (Iemop) said peak daily demand as of the first week of September, which reached a total of 10,563 MW in Luzon, has bounced back to the highest level since June, due to increased economic activity. Iemop chief operating officer Robinson Descanzo said at a press briefing that for the combined Luzon and Visayas grids, the gap between supply and demand remained sufficiently wide last August. Because of that, the average spot price eased to P1.97 per kilowatt-hour from P2.08 per kwh in July.

The return to modified enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal in Aug. 4-18 “resulted in a 696-MW decrease in Luzon’s peak demand during its first week,” Descanzo said.

But at the onset of September, the Luzon peak demand was noticeably increasing with peak demand of 10,563 MW on [Sept. 8], Descanzo said.

This means an increase of 303 MW or 3 percent from the 10,260 MW peak demand observed at the same time in 2019.

He said the system peak demand—meaning the Luzon and Visayas together—has similarly exceeded 2019 levels so far in September by 1.3 percent or 163 MW, despite the downward direction in the past few months.

“As for the customer transaction for 2020, it generally dropped as compared to the same period of 2019, which can be attributed to the implementation of the quarantine protocols,” the COO said.