PRICES at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) are expected to continue falling in May due to the ample power supply, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said.
“Given the trend we are seeing now, we have ample supply, and we see the same level of margin all throughout the month of May. So, we expect the same level of prices that we are experiencing now. Hopefully, even lower,” Isidro E. Cacho, Jr., IEMOP’s head of corporate strategy and communications, said in a virtual briefing on Tuesday.
Mr. Cacho is also hopeful supply will continue to increase in the remainder of the year with the entry of new renewables.
With the upcoming midterm elections, Mr. Cacho said stable spot prices will extend even beyond the polls.
“After the election season, we could still see ample supply generally stable prices,” he said.
For April, the average WESM price system-wide declined 15.3% month on month to P4.52 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) as the supply margin widened.
Available supply improved 8.8% to 21,345 megawatts (MW) while demand grew 7.8% to 14,739 MW.
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest private distribution company, is expecting a potential reduction in the generation and transmission charges for the May electricity billing cycle.
“Initial data shows WESM prices trended lower in the April supply month as power plants that went on outage started to resume operations, boosting capacity in the market,” Meralco Spokesperson Joe R. Zaldarriaga said.
Moreover, Mr. Zaldarriaga said that transmission charges are likely to decline due to lower reserve market prices as well as the completion of the three-month collection of deferred payments to power generators.
In April, the power distributor raised electricity rates by P0.7226 per kWh to P13.0127 per kWh, due to the higher generation charge. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera