Electricity prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) surged by 22.7 percent in June, driven primarily by a dip in available power supply and frequent grid alerts.
According to data from the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) released on Thursday, the average nationwide spot market rate climbed to ₱9.56 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) as of June 25, up from ₱7.79 per kWh in May.
While overall nationwide demand for electricity actually decreased, a steeper drop in available supply pushed prices upward. Several power grid alerts—particularly in the Visayas region—further strained the market.
Nationwide demand dropped 1.9 percent to 15,454 megawatts (MW). Supply dropped 1.1 percent to 21,133 MW.
The price hikes impacted all three major island groups, with the Visayas and Mindanao regions seeing the sharpest increases.
These spot market increases affect consumer electricity bills the exact impact of which depends on how much power local distribution utilities and electric cooperatives buy from WESM. Utilities that buy a large portion of their electricity from the spot market will likely pass higher costs onto consumers. Conversely, those with low exposure will see less of an impact.
In Luzon, Meralco consumers may see a muted impact because the utility only sourced about 7 percent of its power from the spot market last month. However, consumers in the Visayas face a much higher risk of immediate rate hikes. Local utilities there sourced between 15 percent and 30npercent of their electricity from WESM, making them highly vulnerable to the region’s 41.7 percent price surge.
