After implementing another milestone in the history of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) reported significant improvements in its operations following the commercial operations. The launch of the Enhanced WESM Design in the Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao grids is pursuant to DOE Department Circular DC2021-06-0015.
The Commercial Operations of the EWDO paved the way for a more precise forecast accuracy wherein the regional demand forecast accuracy (RTD) resulted to as high as 99.21% in Luzon, 98.99% in Visayas, and 98.66% in Mindanao. Through the shift to the five-minute market design, WESM is now up par with the electricity market of other more developed countries such as those of the United States and Australia; thereby, making the Philippine WESM one of the technologically advanced markets in the global industry standards.
In its monthly media briefing, IEMOP also reported the market operations highlights for the month of June[1] which had a lower average market price of 6.53 PhP/kWh compared to May billing which had an average price of 7.66 PhP/kWh. Majority of the generation still came from coal power plants. The onset of the wet season in the country also led to an increase in the contribution of hydro power plants in the generation mix from 3.3% or 248 GWh for the month of May, to 4.2% or 330 GWh for June.
Peak demand for the month of June amounted to 13,752 MW for Luzon and Visayas grids. This is slightly higher than that of May by 0.67% or 92 MW. Likewise, the regional peak demand for Luzon of 11,601 MW was observed to follow an increasing trend coming from last month’s 11,591 MW figure. On the contrary, the regional peak demand for Visayas decreased from 2,177 MW to 2,151 MW, accordingly.
The Effective Settlement Spot Price (ESSP) for the said month also decreased by 12.75% – from 8.31 P/kWh to 7.25 P/kWh. However, the total spot percentage increased from 9.4% to 10.7%. Consequently, the total generation for the June market transactions which was recorded at 7,513 GWh – higher than the previous month’s record of 7,236 GWh.
Additionally, IEMOP gave updates on the launch of WESM in Mindanao with the implementation of WESM Central Scheduling last 29 June 2021. The timeline for the full integration of WESM in Mindanao was also presented. A Relaxed Dispatched Operations for the Mindanao Grid is to start on 26 July to 25 October 2021. Finally, the full compliance to Dispatch Operations will commence on 26 October 2021.
[1] Data covered the period of 01 June to 26 June 2021
