Electricity spot market prices in November declined by 7.48 percent to P8.53 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from October’s P9.22 per kWh mainly due to the cool weather which reduced the demand for power.
“The interaction of demand and supply took a foothold on this occurrence as the system demand levels diminished by 4.21 percent and amounted to around 10,355 megawatts (MW),” according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).
The operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) also reported on Wednesday that regional demand levels followed suit as the figures for the Luzon and Visayas average demand declined to 8,659 MW from 9,075 MW and 1,696 MW from 1,734 MW, respectively.
The supply level, meanwhile, slightly increased by 1.58 percent or averaging 13,691 MW with coal remaining to be the major player in the generation mix.
With these, the margin greatly improved by 25.04 percent compared to the month of October and resulted in lesser instances of Secondary Price Cap impositions.
However, IEMOP observed that spot prices in the first few days of December amounted to approximately P9.12/kWh. “As of December 11, this was noted to be brought about by the increase in demand and decrease in the level of supply,” it said.
As for the spot market transactions, a downward movement was seen from 13.3 percent or 967 GWh to 11.7 percent or 841 GWh last November.
Likewise, the Effective Spot Settlement Price lowered from P9.21/kWh to P8.62/kWh in the said period. “Overall, the electricity demand for 2022 saw a normalcy in terms its growth as compared to its previous levels in 2020 and 2021 where the effects of the pandemic are extremely felt. On average, it has grown by 3.6 percent versus the 2019 levels. In terms of peak demand values, the demand has grown by 8 percent from the recorded peak demand in 2019,” it said.
The WESM prices for 2022 also recorded significant increase brought about by the soaring prices of imported fuel in the global market.