Spot prices in the WESM encountered a slight increase at the onset of this year’s final quarter by capping off at 9.22 PhP/kWh. This figure is only a notch higher or around 1.10% above
last month’s record of 9.12 PhP/kWh. Outages by major coal, geothermal, oil-based, and natural gas plants remain to be one of the factors behind this movement, and generators with
higher offer prices were dispatched to make up for the needed energy requirements. The average supply for October was recorded at 13,478 MW or 0.89% lower than the figure for September.
On the other hand, October demand increased on average by 171 MW (1.61% higher) compared to September settling at 10,810 MW.
Regional peak demand of Visayas rose from 2,225 MW to 2,261 MW on a month-on-month comparison. However, the Luzon peak demand somewhat decreased from 11,459 MW to
11,253 this October.
Given those circumstances, the average margin for October dropped by 9.86% and led to the imposition of the Secondary Price Cap (SPC) mechanism, a mitigating measure to safeguard
consumers against sustained high WESM prices. The SPC was able to cushion the prices for 52% and 53% of the time for Luzon and Visayas, respectively.
Meanwhile, the preliminary values of November show an upward trend in the supply levels, averaging 13,651 MW. As of 13 November, the power bourse is also witnessing a lower
the demand of approximately 10,083 MW; thereby, leading to a greater margin and lower price average price of 8.08 PhP/kWh.
Moving on, the spot market transactions for October accounted for 13.3% or 969 GWh. This is higher than the recorded amount of spot market transactions last September which only
amounted to 12.1% or 889 GWh. The Effective Spot Settlement Price (ESSP) also showed an increase in value, from 9.16 PhP/kWh to 9.21 PhP/kWh in the said month.
In its monthly media briefing, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) also reiterated its advocacy for the Efficient Use of Energy Towards Productivity.
IEMOP noted several ways to enable efficient use of energy and presented a study wherein as a result of efficient use of energy, a 3% reduction in energy demand could be achieved
which can result to lower WESM prices and mitigation of yellow and red alerts in the grid.
The independent market operator is also currently in coordination with the DOE and ERC for the highly anticipated Reserve market and WESM Mindanao which is geared to bring more opportunities and advancement for the entire industry.
