WESM Jan electricity prices drop 14.3% on-month as demand wanes

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The average price of electricity on the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) for January dropped 14.3 percent from December across the country, preliminary figures from the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) showed yesterday.

As of January 25, the average price per kilowatt hour (kWh) throughout the country stood at P2.96, down 14.3 percent from P3.45 per kWh in the full month of December, according to the data.

The price drop was traced to reduced power demand amid an almost unchanged power supply level, the IEMOP report said. 

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Total average demand in the country for the period fell 5.6 percent to 12,529 megawatts (MW) from 13,275 MW, while average supply eased 0.2 percent to 20,110 MW from 20,150 MW.

Meanwhile, as of January 25, the average price in the WESM for Luzon was at P2.98 per kWh which was an 8.5 percent decreas from December’s P3.26 per kWh.

Average demand in the region slowed by 6.4 percent in January to 8,741 MW from the previous month’s 9,344 MW while average supply also went down by 1.6 percent to 13,962 MW from 14,193 MW.

In the Visayas, the average WESM price for the period was at P3.13, a 19.1 percent fall from full-month December’s P3.87 per kWh. This was accompanied by a 4.4 percent decline in demand at 1,856 MW from 1,942 MW and a 4.5 percent reduction in power supply at 2,372 MW from 2,485 MW.

In Mindanao, the average WESM price plunged 31.9 percent to P2.65 per kWh from December’s P3.88 per kWh, with demand retreating by 2.9 percent to 1,931 MW from 1,989 MW.

The average supply available to the Mindanao grid, however, grew by 8.7 percent to 3,775 MW from 3,473 MW.

IEMOP’s data also showed that as of January 25, total energy generation at the WESM slipped 2.75 percent to 8,991 gigawatt hours (GWh) from December’s 9,245 GWh.

The figures presented by the firm are preliminary and can change depending on the full-month results, it said. 

WESM, the country’s electricity trading center that began commercial operations in 2006, used to be operated by the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC), pursuant to Republic Act 9136, also known as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001. In Sept. 2018, PEMC transferred WESM’s operational functions to the IEMOP with the approval of the Department of Energy and power industry stakeholders.

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