The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) noted an increase in the spot price during the onset of this month, which averaged at P4.23/kWh, compared to previous billing month’s P2.22/kWh. This was largely attributed to the gradual surge in demand as the economy continues to recover from the restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and as changes in the weather ensue due to the approaching dry season. Generator outages also contributed to the said increase in prices.
Despite the generator outages and hotter weather conditions, supply levels remain to be generally sufficient to support the demand requirements – which only had an increase of around 9.2% in comparison to the previous month. In terms of regional peak demand, the Luzon and Visayas demand levels remain to be lower than the 2020 levels. Although an increase was observed in terms of the month-to-month comparison for both grids – 9,544 MW to 10,340 MW for Luzon, and 1,941 MW to 2,136 from Visayas – for the months of February and March 2021, respectively.
As for the February market transactions, total generation was recorded at 6,176 GWh which remains below the 2020 level by 3.9% or approximately 252 GWh. Spot percentage for the monthly slightly increased from 9.7% to 10.6% from the preceding month, while the Effective Settlement Spot Price (ESSP) cleared at 2.34 P/kWh.
In terms of generation mix, a notable increase in the generation of the coal plants was observed – from 47.6% to 54.3%. On the other hand, generation from geothermal and natural gas plants recorded a drop from 11.9% to 11.4% and 25.0% to 22.3%, respectively; while Hydro plants’ generation also dropped to 6.6% from last month’s 9.5%.
The summer outlook and scenarios covering the period of 26 February to 25 June 2021 was also discussed by the Market Operator during its monthly media briefing. The outlook considered the generator outages as laid down in the Grid Operating Program for the summer period. IEMOP projected that there will be an increase in spot prices for the summer months at approximately averaging at Php 2.22/kWh for April and Php 2.69/kWh for May, subject to emergency outages, government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as occurrences of other force majeure.
Likewise, IEMOP provided updates on the Enhanced WESM Design and Operations as well as the implementation of WESM in Mindanao. The Trial and Parallel Operations Programs are ongoing alongside the conduct of Closed Loop Interface Testing starting 26 March, to test the interface and procedures for scheduling and dispatch.
Afterwards, a Limited Live Dispatch Operations (LLDO) is to be implemented wherein the 5-minute dispatch intervals shall be followed but the prices and settlement will still refer to hourly WESM results. Finally, the target commercial operations of the 5-minute WESM is targeted for Go-Live on 26 June 2021.
