Average system-wide electricity prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) surged to P5.34 per kilowatt-hour in March from P2.73 per kWh in February, following reduced supply and increased demand.
Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) corporate planning and communications manager Arjon Valencia said the system-wide average supply from Feb. 26 to March 25, 2025 decreased 4.4 percent to 19,611 megawatts from 20,512 MW in February due to forced outages and derations of power plants.
IEMOP is the operator of the WESM, the trading floor of electricity where electricity prices usually go up when supply is tight and demand is high.
He said power demand also increased 5.9 percent to 13,670 MW in March from 12,904 MW in February, driven by extreme heat during the first week of March.
Valencia said power supply margins shrank 1 percent to 3,957 MW from 5,725 MW in February, “leading to tighter system conditions.”
The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) on Thursday warned of red alerts for the Luzon grid in June, which may lead to power outages.
ICSC, in its latest report, assessed the operating margins, or the difference between available generating capacity and peak demand, in the three main island grids based on the 2025 weekly demand, supply and operating margin profile issued by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines and the Department of Energy (DOE) in December 2024.
ICSC said its findings showed that the Luzon grid would likely have normal reserves in April, with yellow alerts possible in May and red alerts likely in June.
It said the Luzon grid is projected to export power to the Visayas grid through the high voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnection from March 31 to June 1 to ensure sufficient reserves in Visayas.
However, it will need to restrict exports from June 2 to 8, as this is the tightest period for Luzon given the reduced coal generation of around 842 MW forecasted by the NGCP and DOE, potentially leading to red grid alert levels.
“Maintaining sufficient reserve levels during this period will depend heavily on the timely delivery of committed capacities and the prevention of forced outages in power plants outside the GOMP. Ensuring GOMP compliance is critical to maintaining grid stability and reliability,” the report said.