An increase in supply levels was noted to be one of the major factors to the lowering of WESM spot prices for the month of April. The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) observed better supply conditions due to the resumption of operations by generators who were previously on outage. With a positive increment of 449 MW or around 3.3% from last month’s figure, the steady stream of supply of 13,995 MW led to a drop in WESM prices from 6.97 PhP/kWh to 6.26 PhP/kWh.
Another contributor to the decrease in prices was the decline in demand – by around 146 MW or 1.38%. This was partly brought about by the presence of two typhoons, Agaton and Basyang, which gave off heavy rains and a relatively colder weather all over Luzon and Visayas. Likewise, the period covered a week-long religious break which temporarily halted the operations of many businesses. As such, the resulting demand level of 10,454 MW became an attributor to the increase in operating margin by 20.18%.
The same pattern was also evident in the current month’s system peak demand of 13,609 MW which happened to be lower than that of March. For the regional figures, the peak demand of the Luzon decreased from 11,617 MW to 11,492 MW; while that of the Visayas grid increased from 2,143 MW to 2,156 MW.
The Market Operator also presented the settlement results for the March billing period. During the month of March, the spot market transactions accounted for 12.8% percent of all metered quantities or 844 GWh. This is higher than the recorded amount of spot quantities last February. On the other hand, the Effective Settlement Spot Price (ESSP) for March settled at 7.34 PhP/kWh which was higher than that of February at 6.51 PhP/kWh.
As the elections come closer, IEMOP assures the general public of its steadfast commitment in providing excellent and reliable electricity market operations service that is fit for nation-building.
