Initial average price of electricity in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in April increased, according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) due to lower power margins amid higher demand.
As of April 25, average price per kilowatt hour (kWh) in WESM was at P6.90 which is 24.8 percent higher from full month March’s P5.53 per kWh.
IEMOP said total average demand went up 8.9 percent to 14,376 megawatts (MW) from 13,206 MW. Average supply increased by 1.4 percent to 19,210 MW from 18,948 MW pushing power margin down 25 percent to 2,869 MW from 3,827 MW.
The firm said 19.68 percent of trading intervals for April were subjected to the secondary price cap (SPC) compared to March’s 7.04 percent.
SPC serves as a consumer protection from unwarranted increase in electricity prices due to the inherent volatile market price movements in the WESM by lowering the clearing price of electricity to P6.245 per kWh when average prices breach the threshold of P9 per kWh over a 72-hour period.
As of April 25, average price per kWh in the WESM for Luzon was at P6.63 per kWh which is 24.2 percent higher than the P5.34 per kWh in March. Average WESM price for Visayas was at P8.73 which is 36.8 percent more from full month March’s P6.38 per kWh.
For the Mindanao grid, average WESM price per kWh is at P6.43, higher by 52.7 percent from full month March’s P4.21 per kWh.
The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) earlier warned that cost of electricity in Metro Manila this month would likely increase due to higher generation charge as the cost of electricity from WESM went up due to the tight supply condition and as power demand surged along with higher heat indices.
Last month, Meralco implemented a P0.9879 per kWh reduction on its rates mainly driven by sharp decreases in both generation and transmission charges.
Last month’s adjustment was equivalent to a decrease of around P198 in the bill of a residential customer consuming 200 kWh monthly and brought overall power rates to P10.9518 per kWh from the previous P 11.9397 per kWh.
