June WESM prices fall on decreased demand
ELECTRICITY spot prices dropped in June, with a decline in power demand offsetting any impact on prices of lower supply, according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP), citing preliminary data.
IEMOP reported that the average power price at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) system-wide fell 3% month on month to P5.97 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in June.
Supply fell 3.9% to 18,867 megawatts (MW), while demand fell 4.9% to 13,989 MW.
For Luzon, the average WESM price fell 0.9% to P5.92 per kWh compared to May.
The sub-grid’s power supply declined 3.8% to 13,340 MW while the demand dropped 4.9% to 10,142 MW.
Spot prices on the Visayas fell 12.4% month on month to P7.50 per kWh.
Supply fell 9.3% to 2,105 MW. Demand decreased 5.4% to 1,894 MW.
Mindanao spot prices rose 1.3% month on month to P4.67 per kWh.
Supply fell 1% to 3,421 MW while demand declined 4.5% to 1,952 MW.
“The supply-demand scenario in Mindanao (was affected by) some baseload plants that (had) undergone outages. This resulted in a minimal increase in price,” the IEMOP said.
IEMOP operates the WESM, where energy companies can buy power when their long-term contracted power supply is insufficient for customer needs.
Last week, the Energy Regulatory Commission lifted the suspension on settlement in the reserve market.
It ordered the IEMOP to recalculate the resulting reserve trading amounts for the billing periods February and March. It also ordered the IEMOP to adjust the value for the remaining 70% for the March billing month.
The reserve market allows the system operator to procure power reserves from the WESM to meet the reserve requirements of the energy system. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera