The national average price of electricity sold in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) rose by 3.4 percent in July, according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).
Data released by IEMOP on Wednesday showed that the average price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in WESM reached P3.99, up from P3.86 in June.
IEMOP attributed the increase to lower available power supply during the month, as a significant number of power plants remained under scheduled and unplanned maintenance outages.
Nationwide, total average demand dropped by 5 percent to 13,812 megawatts (MW) from 14,545 MW, while average supply decreased by 3.2 percent to 20,754 MW from 21,432 MW.
“What drove that slight increase in nationwide average rates is the fact that we currently have power plant outages. Remember, we did not allow maintenance outages during the summer and moved them to later dates. These are now being reflected in our July transactions,” Isidro Cacho Jr., IEMOP’s head of trading operations, said during a virtual briefing on Wednesday.
In Luzon, the average WESM price in July amounted to P3.92 per kWh, a 0.3 percent increase from June’s P3.91 per kWh. Average demand in the region fell by 6.6 percent to 9,710 MW from the previous month’s 10,400 MW, while average supply declined by 3.6 percent to 14,540 MW from 15,076 MW.
In the Visayas, the average WESM price for the period climbed 11.7 percent to P4.39 from June’s P3.93 per kWh. Demand dropped by 1.7 percent to 1,998 MW from 2,033 MW, while supply fell by 3.9 percent to 2,530 MW from 2,635 MW.
Meanwhile, the Mindanao grid registered a 7.3 percent increase in average WESM price for July, reaching P3.80 from June’s P3.54 per kWh. Demand dipped slightly by 0.38 percent to 2,104 MW from 2,112 MW, while available supply was 1 percent lower at 3,685 MW, down from 3,721 MW in June.
IEMOP clarified that the data cited does not cover the entire calendar month, as the WESM billing period ends on the 25th day of each month.
