AVERAGE price of electricity in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) increased in May , according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).
Based on data from IEMOP, the increase in average spot market power rates were mainly due to higher demand and supply for electricity from WESM.
As of May 25, average price per kilowatt hour (kWh) in WESM was at P8.22 which is 19.1 percent higher than the P6.90 per kWh for the month of April.
IEMOP said total average demand for the period went up by 9.1 percent to 15,688 megawatts (MW) from 14,375 MW. Average supply increased by 2.3 percent to 19,648 MW from 19,199 MW.
Meanwhile, the Luzon Grid remained on yellow alert yesterday as of 9:30 a.m. yesterday as 20 power plant units were on either forced outage or de-rated with a total unavailable capacity of 2,280.8 MW.
Yellow alert was raised in the Luzon Grid yesterday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 12 midnight of June 5 as 16 power plant units went down and four more with de-rated capacities.
Yellow alerts are issued when the level of power reserve in the grid is low and power interruptions are not yet imminent.
According to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, the alerts were raised as available capacity in the Luzon Grid was only 14,461 MW against a peak demand of 13,612 MW.
