Electricity spot prices might raise November bills
The series of natural disasters, coupled with stronger demand, pushed the prices of electricity traded at the spot market to soar by 49.4 percent in October.
The systemwide power rates covering the October supply increased to P4.54 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from the previous month’s P3.04 per kWh. This will reflect in consumers’ November bills.
Data from the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) showed Thursday that the demand during the period rose by 1.8 percent to 13,881 megawatts (MW).
Supply, however, fell 4 percent to 19,889 MW.
IEMOP operates the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), an avenue where power is traded between producers and distributors to boost their supply.
All the grids saw increases in rates, with Luzon logging the biggest jump at 54.3 percent to P3.96 per kWh. Both the Visayas and Mindanao, however, recorded higher rates at P5.85 per kWh and P5.87 per kWh, respectively.
Isidro Cacho Jr., IEMOP’s vice-president for trading operations, said this was a usual scenario during October given the rise in demand.
“Aside from supply and demand, we experienced earthquakes and typhoons. Those events had an impact on our market because they caused multiple outages, plant trippings, and several generator shutdowns,” he told reporters during a virtual briefing.
The Visayas grid was placed under “yellow alert” after several power plants were on forced outage following the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that jolted Cebu late in September.
In a yellow alert, the power supply can still meet demand. But it will serve as a warning that when a plant breaks down one way or another, it will result in brownouts.
Asked for his forecast on WESM rates, Cacho said they expect lower rates as demand weakens during the colder months of November to January.
“Our expectation is prices will be more stable and lower, barring any unplanned plant outages. If there are significant plant outages, that’s when it becomes a concern,” he said.
