WESM prices down in August

MANILA, Philippines — Intermittent rains and the imposition of varying levels of quarantine restrictions across the country pulled down prices at the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) this month, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said.

In a virtual briefing yesterday, IEMOP market simulation and analysis division manager John Paul Grayda said average WESM prices until Aug. 18 was at P5.03 per kilowatt-hour (kwh), lower than last month’s average  billing of P6.52 per kwh.

He attributed the decline to the colder weather and implementation of stricter community quarantine restrictions.

Grayda said there was also an increase in average supply for this month in comparison to the previous month by 6.2 percent or 801 megawatts (MW).

The system peak demand for the month of July amounted to 13,802 MW, 4.87 percent  lower than that of June.

On a per region basis, peak demand decreased by 552 MW to 11,049 MW in Luzon and by 44 MW to 2,107 MW in Visayas, which is still mostly served by coal power plants.

Correspondingly, the Effective Settlement Spot Price slightly decreased from P7.26 per kwh for June to P7.20 per kwh for July.

Total spot percentage was also reduced from 10.7 percent to 9.6 percent so is the total generation for the July market transactions which was recorded at 6,813 GWh.

The IEMOP forecasts a decline in supply from natural gas facilities from 3,290 MW to 1,892 MW as the Malampaya gas facility is scheduled to shut down from Oct.  2 to 22.

However, supply in the power grid is still seen to be enough as demand is seen to trend lower, with an average supply-demand margin of 3,875 MW during the period, Grayda said.

“For the Malampaya maintenance outage, though we have a decrease in supply, we can see here that we still have enough capacity to support the energy requirement and demand requirement,” he said.

For the rest of the year, the market operator sees ample supply in the remaining  four billing months.