News

Following the special report on the first 30 days of WESM Operations under the COVID-19 Enhanced Community Quarantine, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) published another report detailing the market results for the sixty-day period from 16 April until 15 May 2020.

As noted in the previous report, the system energy requirements of Luzon and Visayas dropped by an average of 2,187 MW during the first month of the ECQ (i.e., 16 March – 15 April 2020), or 21.1% lower compared to pre-ECQ levels (i.e., 26 February to 15 March 2020). System energy requirement only started to pick-up during the second month of the ECQ period with an average increase of 867 MW as compared to the first month of the ECQ. The notable increase in demand can be attributed to the warmer weather and the resumption of operations of commercial establishments as selected areas transitioned from ECQ to General Community Quarantine (GCQ).

Despite this, the system energy requirements of Luzon and Visayas grids during the ECQ period still dropped by an average of 1,761 MW, such that the system energy requirements during the ECQ period was approximately 17% lower compared to the pre-ECQ levels. This then led to lower WESM prices, as values ranged from PhP 0.0/kWh to PhP 5.07/kWh, that resulted to an average price of PhP 1.58/kWh.

The aforementioned low market prices were reflected in the final statements for the March 2020 and April 2020 billing periods as the Customer Effective Spot Settlement Price (ESSP) registered PhP 2.47/kWh and PhP 1.50/kWh, respectively. Of the total energy transactions for these billing months, customer spot purchases registered at 10.7% in the March 2020 billing period and 8.8% in the April 2020 billing period.

Likewise, the latest IEMOP report also covered the Market Outlook which considered the transition of most areas in Luzon and Visayas from Modified ECQ to GCQ. It explored on the probable market outcomes for the period from 16 May to 25 June 2020.

IEMOP market operations services such as participant registration, billing and settlement, training and data provision, and information dissemination continue despite the imposition of the modified ECQ in the NCR.

Market development initiatives are also in progress as preparations for the implementation of the highly-anticipated enhanced WESM design and corresponding commercial operations of the new market systems (i.e., NMMS, CRSS, and ancillary systems) continue.