Spot electricity price dips

MARKETPLACE Matching buyers and sellers of electricity —photo courtesy of Iemop

The average electricity spot market price in May marginally dropped as the available power supply increased amid the growth in demand, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (Iemop) reported.

In a virtual briefing, Iemop stakeholder communications specialist Danyella Jamina Santiago said the average price at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) this month dropped to P6.21 per kilowatt-hour against P6.44 per kWh in April.

WESM is the venue for trading electricity as a commodity. This is where distributors source electricity to augment their primary supply.

Power demand rising

Iemop, the independent operator of WESM, said demand was escalating at a gradual pace as the economy started to pick up and businesses continued to resume their operations given the more lenient restrictions on health protocols.

“More so, for the onset of May, the nation has still encountered remnants of the dry season, which forced people to consume more electricity with the increased use of air conditioning systems,” Iemop said in a statement.

Iemop noted that average demand for the month soared by 7.7 percent to 11,259 megawatts from 10,454 MW.

It also observed that power demand recorded this month had surpassed peak demands of the previous years. This was as peak demand in Luzon and the Visayas was recorded on May 12, when it rose by 5.27 percent to 14,380 MW.

Data presented by Iemop showed peak demand in Luzon reached 12,103 MW, up by 4.42 percent. In the Visayas, peak demand went up by 4.96 percent to 2,285 MW.

Meanwhile, Iemop said supply levels climbed by 10.08 percent to 15,406 MW from 13,995 MW as more power plants resumed operations.

“One of the main factors attributable to the growth in supply was the resumption of the operations of notable generators [which] were previously on outage during the latter half of April, most of which were coal and geothermal plants,” it added.

Coal-fired power plants account for nearly two-thirds of the power generation mix at 60.9 percent, followed by natural gas plants at 21.6 percent.