Prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, the country’s trading floor of electricity, are expected to continue their downtrend until January, executives said Wednesday.
John Paul Grayda, manager for pricing validation and analysis of the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines, said market prices settled below P2 per kilowatt-hour in the past two months.
IEMOP is the operator of the WESM where prices continued to drop in December as ample generation supply and colder weather persisted and the government extended the community quarantine.
“For January, we expect the trend to continue,” Grayda said.
He said WESM prices, which move depending on market demand, would also be affected by the availability of the vaccine and the expected relaxation of quarantine protocols next year.
“It will have an impact on the level of supply and demand. It will have an impact on prices,” Grayda said.
IEMOP data showed that the price downtrend began in October despite the forced and planned outages caused by Typhoon Quinta on Oct. 27 to 28.
The consecutive typhoons in November had a significant impact on the market results including the decline in demand and supply on Nov. 1 to 3 caused by the passage of Typhoon Rolly.
This was succeeded by the declaration of market intervention, followed by the imposition of market suspension on Nov. 12 to 13 because of Typhoon Ulysses.
IEMOP said it administered prices in Luzon for the affected intervals. Aside from this, system demand dipped during the celebration of Bonifacio Day on Nov. 30.
Peak demand in November declined by 4.7 percent or equivalent to 580 megawatts from the same month last year.
It said peak demand in the first 10 days of December decreased by 4.5 percent (539 MW) from a year ago.
Luzon peak demand decreased for both November and December (as of Dec. 10) by 4.9 percent (509MW) and 4.4 percent (440MW), respectively.
Meanwhile, peak demand in the Visayas eased by 5.3 percent (113 MW) for November and 6.4 percent (137 MW) as of Dec. 10.
IEMOP said colder weather and the frequent occurrence of typhoons in November resulted in 9.2-percent drop in energy consumption.
