The cost of power obtained from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in Luzon and the Visayas thus far this month trended up, according to the independent electricity market operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).
In an online briefing on Friday, the IEMOP said the increase was mainly due to higher average power demand amid lower available average capacity.
As of February 8, the average price per kilowatt hour (kWh) in the WESM stood at P7.43 or 29 percent higher from January when this averaged only P5.76 per kWh.
The IEMOP said demand during the period also went up by 5.7 percent to 9,785 megawatts (MW) from only 9,253 MW.
Meanwhile, average supply for the period dropped 4 percent to 13,601 MW from 14,232 MW.
The figures presented for February are preliminary and can still change depending on the full-month development.
Also, the data presented by IEMOP only reflect the situation in the Luzon and Visayas grids as WESM in Mindanao has only commercially operated since January 26 with a total registered capacity of 4,326 MW.
IEMOP said the registered Mindanao trading participants include 43 generation companies, 28 electric cooperatives, 4 private distribution utilities, 12 directly-connected customers and 10 metering service providers.
It said Mindanao currently has a peak demand reaching only about 2,167 MW, leaving a large supply margin of about 2,000 MW.
