This month recorded another increase in the supply levels which resulted to a more competitive price in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). With the supply amounting to 15,406 MW, or a 1,411 MW difference from that of the previous month’s, the 10.08% increase led to a greater margin in the power bourse despite the growth in demand of around 7.70% or around 805 MW for a total of 11,259 MW.
One of the main factors attributable to the growth in supply was the resumption of the operations of notable generators who were previously on outage during the latter half of April. Most of which were coal and geothermal plants. Likewise, the Department of Energy, through its Energy Task Force Election, stayed on top of the entire demand-supply situation which further paved the way for the ample supply levels during the election period.
Meanwhile, coming from April, the demand levels continued to escalate at a gradual pace as the economy started to pick-up and businesses continued to resume their operations given the more lenient restrictions on health protocols. More so, for the onset of May, the nation has still encountered remnants of the dry season which forced people to consume more electricity with the increased use of air-conditioning systems.
The same goes for the Luzon-Visayas and regional peak demands which happened to record their respective highest figures for the year. For the Luzon-Visayas peak demand, we have recorded around 14,380 MW – a 5.27% increase from the same period of the previous year. In fact, this figure also managed to surpass the peak demands of the previous years. Meanwhile for the Luzon grid, it was recorded at 12,103 MW or around 4.42% increase from the same period last 2021.The Visayas grid reached its peak demand at 2,285 MW and recorded a 4.96% increase basing from the May 2021 values.
In spite of this increasing levels in demand, the significant growth in supply was able to offset the scale through the increase in margin from 3,541 MW to 4,147 MW which provided enough leeway for the decrease in the average spot price of 6.21 PhP/kWh. This is lower by 0.80% or 0.05 PhP/kWh than the April 2022 figure.
On the other hand, for the month of April, the spot market transactions accounted for 10.1% percent or 731 GWh. This is lower than the recorded amount of spot market transactions last March which amounted to 12.8% or 844 GWh. The Effective Spot Settlement Price (ESSP) also showed a decrease in value, from 7.34 PhP/kWh last March down to 6.44 PhP/kWh in April 2022.
As part of its thrust to provide reliable market management, IEMOP will continue to apprise its participants and stakeholders on matters that are geared towards the development of the industry and nation-building.
