For the April 2025 billing period, the country’s overall power supply rose to 21,345 megawatts- an 8.8% increase from March. Electricity demand also went up to 14,739 megawatts, about 7.8% higher than the previous month, largely due to the intense summer heat. With more supply available than demand, the supply margin widened to 4,585 megawatts, compared to 3,957 megawatts last March. As a result, market prices went down from PHP 5.34 per kilowatt-hour to PHP 4.52- a 15.3% decrease. This downward trend is a reversal from the same period last year when prices went up. The key difference this year is the stronger supply margin in April 2025.
Similar trends were observed across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, with both supply and demand increasing. The wider supply margin this billing month, compared to March, contributed to lower electricity prices nationwide.
In terms of generation mix, renewable energy accounted for 22% of total generation. Coal’s share increased from 54.3% to 59.8%, while natural gas declined from 19% to 17%, and oil-based generation dropped from 0.8% to 0.5%. Solar energy held steady at 4.8%, while hydropower continued to decline, from 10.6% in January to 7.3% in April, due to the ongoing dry season.
On the retail market, about 21% or 2.12 TWh of total customer consumption was served through the retail electricity market this billing period. The Effective Spot Settlement Price (ESSP) dropped to PHP 4.82/kWh from PHP 5.90/kWh in March- an 18.3% decrease. Spot quantities also increased, accounting for 22.4% of total energy transacted. Despite this higher spot exposure, the total trading amount slightly declined from PHP 17.76 billion to PHP 17.17 billion, mainly due to lower market prices.
As for the Renewable Energy Market (REM), IEMOP issued a total of 1,457,878 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for the January to March 2025 billing periods, comprising 291,231 FiT RECs and 1,166,647 Non-FiT RECs. This brings the cumulative total of issued RECs to 48.14 million. Additionally, 627,976 more FiT RECs are expected to be issued for February to March 2025.
In summary, despite rising demand due to the peak of the dry season and the upcoming elections, plant outages were fewer, allowing for higher available supply. This resulted in a significantly wider supply margin and lower prices across all grids this billing month compared to the previous month.
