The average price of electricity at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) for October rose more than double from September, according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).
As of October 20, the average price stood at Php6.75 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), as against Php3.30/kWh in September.
IEMOP said on Friday that the price surge was due to the maintenance and unplanned outages of several power plants.
“As a result of the plant outages, the average supply of 13,376 megawatts (MW) for this month was 6.4% lower than that of the previous month’s 14,290MW figure. On the other hand, demand for the month of October increased from 9,928MW to 10,250MW or around 3.24% or 322MW,” IEMOP said in a statement.
The outages for October include those connected to the maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya gas field, which ended also on Friday.
“The same goes for the system peak demand which increased on a month-to-month comparison from 12,481MW to 12,920MW. This trend is reflected in the regional peak demands, with the increase in Luzon peak demand by 352MW (3.36%) from 10,451MW in September; Visayas peak demand also went up from 2,089MW to 2,145MW or around 2.68%,” IEMOP added.