December 7, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) saw a modest rise in average electricity prices in November as lower demand failed to counterbalance the equally diminished supply.
System-wide WESM rates edged up by 0.6 percent to P4.42 per kilowatt hour from October’s P4.39 per kWh, according to preliminary data from the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).
“Although both the system supply and demand decreased this month, its margin remained a factor in the price’s slight increase as the supply margin for the November billing period is lower than October,” said Arjon Valencia, IEMOP corporate planning and communications manager.
Operated by IEMOP, WESM is the centralized venue for trading electricity as a commodity where prices are determined by supply and demand.
From Oct. 26 to Nov. 25, overall supply slipped by two percent to 19,492 megawatts from 19,897 MW, while demand dipped by 2.2 percent to 13,659 MW from 13,972 MW.
The supply margin, or the difference between the available supply and the actual demand, narrowed by 1.6 percent to 5,833 MW from 5,925 MW on a monthly basis.
The lower supply margin, Valencia explained, was propelled by the “supply-demand situation in Luzon, which has an effect in the system collectively.”
In the Luzon grid, the average spot market price increased by 8.9 percent to P4.24 per kWh from P3.89 per kWh.
The region’s supply declined by 2.4 percent to 13,645 MW from 13,979 MW, while demand decreased by 2.5 percent to 9,663 MW from 9,915 MW.
This resulted in a supply margin of 3,982 MW, slightly down from the 4,064 MW recorded in the preceding month.
Meanwhile, WESM rates in Visayas and Mindanao plunged by 18.6 percent and 6.6 percent to P4.82 and P4.85 per kWh, respectively.
Supply in the Visayas recorded a 4.6-percent downtick to 2,394 MW from 2,510 MW, while that of Mindanao grew by 1.3 percent to 3,453 MW from 3,408 MW.
In terms of demand, consumption in the Visayas was lower by 1.6 percent to 1,971 MW from 2,003 MW, while power sourced in the Mindanao grid declined by 1.2 percent to 2,030 MW from 2,054 MW.
Aside from reduced supply margin, the IEMOP also observed that contributions from coal-fired power plants in WESM’s generation mix decreased to 58.1 percent in November from 60.3 percent previously.
Coal is regarded as the cheapest among the scheduled baseload power plants or generation facilities that can operate continuously and provide consistent power to cater to the base demand of the grid.
Valencia, however, said renewable energy sources “showed growth” in contributions in the energy mix, with solar and wind generation rising to 3.4 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
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