Power spot market rates continue decline in Sept

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s electricity spot market has continued to register a decline in prices as of end-September due to ample electricity supply.

The Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) said energy purchased from the spot market averaged P2.28 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) for the September 2015 billing from P5.58 per kwh as of September 2014.

The monthly effective spot settlement prices (ESSPs) has been on a downtrend since July 2015, when the rate declined to P5.59 per kwh from P7.63 per kwh in June. The ESSP in August was at P4.96 per kwh.

The downtrend is “despite the price spikes experienced in August due to the forced or maintenance outage of some of the coal-fired plants,” PEMC noted.

This is because the transaction over the spot market was only at 8.6 percent compared with bilateral agreements at 91.4 percent, the market operator said.

PEMC operates the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the country’s trading floor for electricity.

In another development, PEMC also saw an improvement in the Third WESM Participants’ Satisfaction Survey, conducted by an independent third-party firm from  July 29 to August 28.

Analysis of the final results revealed an increase in overall performance of PEMC from 3.8 in 2014 to 4.0 in 2015.

The survey likewise reveals that all rating evaluations by WESM members fall within the satisfactory range, the market operator said.