The average price of electricity sold on the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) surged 95.5 percent
in March, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said on Thursday.
Higher demand in the face of dwindling supply triggered the sudden price increase, IEMOP Corporate Planning and Communications Manager Arjon Valencia said.
Data released by the operator on Thursday showed the average price per kilowatt hour (kWh) sold on WESM nationwide was up at P5.34 as of March 25 from P2.73 per kWh in February.
The billing period in the spot market operator’s data has a cutoff date every 25th day of the month.
Average demand across the country for the covered period rose 5.9 percent to 13,670 megawatts (MW) from 12,904 MW, while the average supply dropped 4.4 percent to 19,611 MW from 20,512 MW in the comparable period.
Valencia said the spot market operator was compelled to impose the secondary price cap 6.39 percent of the time as the spot market price began to surge in the first week of March.
The secondary price cap is a spot market mechanism that aims to protect consumers from unwarranted increases in electricity prices as a result of the inherent volatile price movements on WESM. It lowers the clearing price of electricity to P6.245 per kWh when the average price breaches the P9 per kWh threshold over a 72-hour period.
On the other hand, the average price per kWh at WESM-Luzon spiked by as much as 102.7 percent to P5.50 per kWh in March from P2.71 per kWh a month earlier.
The average demand in Luzon rose 7.1 percent to 9,713 MW in March from 9,071 MW in February, while the a`verage supply dropped 6.5 percent to 13,530 MW from 14,475 MW in the comparable period.
In the Visayas, the average price of electricity jumped 95.5 percent to P5.48 per kWh in March from P2.81 per kWh in February.
Demand in the Visayas rose 2 percent to 1,913 MW from 1,876 MW, while supply dropped 1.3 percent to 2,365 MW from 2,397 MW in the comparable period.
The average spot market price in Mindanao increased 61.3 percent to P4.39 from P2.72 per kWh in February, as demand for electricity rose 4.5 percent to 2,044 MW from 1,956 MW.
In Mindanao, the average supply of electricity increased 2.1 percent to 3,716 MW from 3,640 MW, the spot market operator’s data showed.
