To kick start the new year, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) immediately worked on the market developments in its pipeline along with the stakeholder engagement activities that are geared to apprise the trading participants on the latest policies and processes in the WESM.
At the same time, in pursuit of providing efficient, transparent, and reliable market management, IEMOP, as part of Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Task Force Elections, has been in constant coordination with DOE and other stakeholders to ensure the steady and reliable stream of electricity supply for the coming months. This is deemed crucial given the foreseen increase in demand brought about by the change in weather during summer and the upcoming May 2022 Presidential Elections. To ensure the general public of the sufficient supply of electricity, the DOE approved the 2022-2024 Grid Operating and Maintenance Program (GOMP) which serves as a framework in ensuring that the electricity supply meets the demand to prevent any possible supply shortages. For this to come into fruition, IEMOP further emphasized the need for fervent cooperation and strict adherence of the market participants as the key elements to its success.
IEMOP presented different supply scenarios for the summer of 2022. In its simulations using typical generator offers and the DOE-forecasted peak demand, there is no projected energy supply shortage. In addition, even if there is 1000MW additional unscheduled outage, the supply in the grid can still sustain the demand. However, IEMOP emphasized that GOMP compliance is the key for sufficient supply in the summer of 2022.
The Market Operator presented the supply and demand projections from February to June 2022 along with the market operations highlights during the last quarter of 2021 until the present.
As of 25 January 2022, this month witnessed a higher average price of 6.98 PhP/kWh compared to that of the previous month’s average of 6.43 PhP/kWh due to forced and planned outages of major plants which later on resulted to the imposition of a Secondary Price Cap. It should be noted, however, that both average supply and demand decreased based on a month-on-month comparison. From 9,232 MW, the average supply this January lowered down by 4.41% to 8,544 MW. Meanwhile, the average demand of 12,702 MW decreased by 7.45% to 12,142 MW.
The same for the system peak demand during the last two (2) months of 2021 wherein it recorded a decrease from 12,675 MW last November to 12,096 MW the following month. This pattern was also observed in the regional peak demands, with the decrease in Luzon peak demand by 551 MW (5.22%) from 10,550 MW in November; Visayas peak demand also went down from 2,154 MW to 2,135 MW (0.88%).
As for the market transactions, the Effective Settlement Spot Price (ESSP) increased from 5.15 PhP/kWh in November to 6.20 PhP/kWh in December. On the other hand, the total spot percentage decreased for this period from 12.2% to 8.3%. The generation for the December spot transactions was recorded at 6,219 GWh.
In the coming year, IEMOP reiterates its commitment to facilitate a world-class service to the participants and stakeholders for a better and brighter future of the WESM.
