The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) reported that average electricity prices in the wholesale market rose in August, mostly attributed to power plant outages combined with stronger power demand nationwide.

System-wide prices went up by PHP 0.61 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to PHP 4.59/kWh from July’s PHP 3.99/kWh. Supply dropped slightly by 0.7% to 20,611 megawatts (MW), while demand increased by 1.7% to 14,052 MW.

In Luzon, prices slightly eased to PHP 3.76/kWh compared to PHP 3.92/kWh in July despite higher demand and supply. This was influenced in part by increased power exports to the Visayas system via the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) link, which helped ease local price pressures.

In contrast, prices in the Visayas surged to PHP 6.40/kWh from PHP 4.39/kWh following outages in coal plants and shutdowns of biomass facilities at the end of the milling season, which also triggered yellow alerts on August 1, 4, and 5. Mindanao also saw a steep rise in rates, climbing to PHP 6.66/kWh from PHP 3.80/kWh due to outages in coal plants and the entry of more expensive fuel sources, leading to a yellow alert on August 1.

Renewable energy accounted for 26% of total generation during the month. Hydro power increased to 12.6% of supply with help from rains brought by the typhoon and southwest monsoon. Solar also grew to 4%. Coal’s share fell to 50.6% from 54.1%, geothermal dipped slightly to 7.8%, and natural gas rose to 22%.

About 23% of customer purchases, or 2.28 terawatt-hours (TWh), came from the retail electricity market. Spot market transactions also grew, with ESSP (effective spot settlement price) averaging PHP 5.55/kWh in August, higher than July’s PHP 4.17/kWh. IEMOP said total electricity trading in the wholesale market amounted to about PHP 15.3 billion for the period.

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