Power spot market prices up due to higher demand
By Jordeene B. Lagare – April 9, 2021
from The Manila Times
The outage of power plants and higher electricity demand inched up prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines, Inc. (Iemop) said the spot market price averaged at P4.16 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in March, higher than the P2.22 per kWh recorded in February.
Iemop largely attributed the spike in spot prices “to the higher frequency of unplanned generator outages and rise in demand.”
“Supply levels are generally sufficient to support the demand requirement. However, there are instances of thin supply margin due to unplanned outages,” said Iemop, the WESM operator.
Several power plants, mostly coal-fired power plants, were on scheduled maintenance or forced power outage during the March billing period.
Iemop said from the original planned daily outage capacity of 996 megawatts (MW) for March, the average generator outage capacity increased to 2,575 MW.
Demand peaked at 12,582 MW in March that occurred on March 18. It was higher than the peak demand of 11,485 MW a month ago. But it was lower than the peak demand of 12,611 MW recorded in June last year.
Iemop observed a decrease in demand following the announcement of the varying levels of community quarantines.
“Furthermore, a significant drop in demand was recorded during the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), which incidentally fell on Holy Week during the last week of March and onset of April,” it said.
Iemop Manager for Market Simulation and Analysis Division John Paul Grayda said during the Holy Week that peak demand decreased to 12,112 MW as of April 2.
Grayda told reporters that Iemop’s forecast for the next three months is “somewhat conservative” given that Metro Manila and four other provinces are still under ECQ.
Meanwhile, Iemop Chief Operating Officer Robinson Descanzo said the market operator submitted a situationer report on power plant outages thrice to the Department of Energy, Energy Regulatory Commission, and Philippine Electricity Market Corp. “for them to look deeper” on the performance of these power facilities.
