Power spot market rate seen to decline

MANILA, Philippines - Barring unforeseen plant outages, the electricity spot market rate is expected to sustain its downtrend on cooler temperature and higher available supply from various power plants, market operator Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) said.

In a briefing, PEMC president Melinda Ocampo said the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) price could continue on its downward movement if there would be no unscheduled power plant outage.

“We will see a continued downward trend unless there will be major [power plant] outages,” she said.

In addition, higher capacity from power plants and cooler temperature with the onset of the rainy season would also pull down WESM rates, PEMC training and communications manager Phillip Adviento said in the same briefing.

“The impact of the scheduled maintenance shutdowns of several power plants after the election period will be offset by the lower demand due to rainy season and the incoming capacities from the San Gabriel and Avion gas-fired power plants,” he said.

The Department of Energy (DOE) cleared power plant operators to conduct maintenance outage a week after the May 9 national elections.

So far, only a 382-megawatt (MW) unit of the Pagbilao power plant and a 145-MW unit of San Roque power plant have scheduled maintenance shutdowns this month.

However, Ocampo said only those distribution utilities with exposure to the electricity spot market may be able to enjoy low WESM prices.

The WESM price amounted to P2.94 per kilowatt-hour in May, a significant drop from P4.34 per kwh in April and P4.62 per kwh in May 2015.

PEMC said this is a result of an increase in available capacities, less plant outages, increase in registered capacities and central scheduling and dispatch of energy and contracted reserves.

“The increase in generation offers is seen as a factor in the decline of market prices. The rise in generation offers during the critical summer period and election season can be attributed to increase in registered capacities with influx of solar plants and less scheduled outages,” Ocampo said.