Power spot market prices ease in H1

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s electricity spot market registered a downward trend in prices in the first half of 2015 amid abundant power supply even with concerns over the power situation during the summer months and the Malampaya gas shutdown.

The Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) said energy purchased from the spot market averaged P5.245 per kilowatt-hour in the first six months of 2015, lower than the P6.639 per kwh in the same period in 2014.

PEMC operates the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the country’s trading floor for electricity.

The market operator noted that “low prices were observed from March to mid-May 2015 because of increase in supply when generating plants on scheduled maintenance outage went back online, offsetting the unavailability of Malampaya.”

The Malampaya facility, which went on scheduled shut down from March 15 to April 15, supplies 40 percent of Luzon grid’s requirements and required natural gas power plants to use more expensive diesel fuel.

The lower price was also despite the rising temperatures and higher demand requirement due to the summer season, it noted.

PEMC said the downtrend during the said months also offset the slight uptick in prices in January and February, owed to a more managed scheduling of maintenance outages.

During the ninth WESM Annual Participant’s meeting held in Crowne Plaza yesterday, newly-appointed Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairman Jose Vicente Salazar said this is a testament that the spot market is working. 

“First the market is working and that it is working well. Second, the public is benefiting well from the good performance of the market,” he said.

In the same event, Department of Energy (DOE) acting Secretary Zenaida Monsada stressed the WESM’s operations must be streamlined to improve the system by improving on the market design and framework must be improved and addressing transmission and distribution issues.