The average price of electricity sold at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in Luzon and Visayas fell in July as power units ran without interruption and demand moderately eased as well, according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).
IEMOP said the decline was due to the absence of major plant outages and lower demand for power during the period.
As of 16 July, the price per kilowatt hour (kWh) at the WESM for Luzon and the Visayas averaged only P6.07 or 9 percent lower than in June when it averaged P6.67 per kWh.
IEMOP said demand in the two major island groups during the period eased by 1.3 percent to 11,486 megawatts (MW) from 11,641 MW.
The average supply in Luzon and the Visayas for the period also eased 1.9 percent to 14,858 MW from 15,145 MW and average power reserves similarly dropped 26.5 percent to 437 MW from 595 MW.
Isidro Cacho Jr., IEMOP corporate strategy and communications head, said in a virtual briefing that the drop in WESM prices in July is expected sustained for the rest of the month barring any unplanned power plant outage.
“Our margin is stable so hopefully that continues, then possibly we can see a further lowering in prices. I think all these are good indications. There are improvements in terms of outages and plant performance so hopefully these continue,” Cacho further said.
But the IEMOP said that for the Mindanao grid, the WESM price per kWh averaged P3.83 or a 12.8 percent increase from June of only P3.34 per kWh.
Average demand in Mindanao for the period rose slightly by 0.22 percent to 1,809 MW from 1,805 MW while average supply declined by 0.34 percent to 3,192 MW from 3,203 MW as average reserves grew 9.9 percent to 122 MW from 111 MW.
