Prices of electricity traded at the spot market surged by 49.4 percent in October, as the recent natural disasters curtailed supply.
Systemwide power rates covering the October supply increased to P4.54 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from the previous month’s P3.04 per kWh. This will reflect in consumers’ November bills. Data from the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) showed that demand during the period rose by 1.8 percent to 13,881 megawatts (MW).
Supply, however, decreased by 4 percent to 19,889 MW.
All the major grids saw increases in rates, with Luzon logging the biggest jump at 54.3 percent to P3.96 per kWh.
Sport prices in the Visayas reached P5.85 per kWh and in Mindanao P5.87 per kWh. Isidro Cacho Jr., IEMOP’s vice-president for trading operations, said this was a usual scenario during October given the rise in demand.
‘Aside from supply and demand, we experienced earthquakes and typhoons. Those events had an impact on our market because they caused multiple outages, plant trippings and several generator shutdowns,’ he told reporters during a virtual briefing.