The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) is projecting average power supply in the Luzon and Visayas grids will be sufficient in the remaining months of the year despite the Malampaya shutdown by October.
In an online briefing Friday, IEMOP said averagepower supply and demand margins from September until December will be all above 3,000 megawatts (MW).
John Paul Grayda, the firm’s manager for market simulation and analysis division, said expectedpower supply and demand margin for October against September is lower but will remain sufficient.
Based on IEMOP’s projections, average supply for October would be at 15,038 MW paired with an average demand of 11,162 MW or a margin of 3,875 MW, which is slightly lower from September’s average margin of 4,119 MW coming from an average supply of 14,795 MW and average demand of 10,676 MW.
Meanwhile, average supply for December would be at 15,441 MW along with an average demand of 10,267 MW or a margin of 5,174 MW, which is higher than November’s average margin of 4,308 MW with an average supply of 15,086 MW and average demand of 10,779 MW.
Likewise, IEMOP said the initial average price of electricity in the wholesale electricity spot market for August dropped to P5.03 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from last month’s P6.52 per kWh.
That is almost a 23 percent decline but may still change as the data collected by the firm was only until August 18.
IEMOP said initial average power demand for August slightly dropped to 10,174 MW from last month’s 10,213 MW as average supply went up to 13,711 MW from 12,911 MW.
The lower power demand was driven by cooler temperatures due to intermittent rains and thunderstorms this month as well as the imposition of varying levels of quarantine restrictions, it added.
