By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated March 21, 2017 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - More customers
sourced power from the wholesale electricity spot market (MWESM) as prices
plummeted to six-year lows in January, based on data from the Philippine
Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC).
In a statement yesterday, PEMC said
effective settlement spot prices (ESSPs) at the WESM plunged to P1.90 per
kilowatt-hour (kwh) for the January billing period, the lowest since January
2011.
ESSPs refer to the average prices
paid by wholesale customers for energy purchased from the spot market.
The resulting prices resulted in
customer confidence, thereby augmenting their supply sourced from the WESM
wherein wholesale customers sourced 23 percent of their electricity
requirements from the electricity bourse for the January 2017 billing period.
PEMC said this was the highest
percentage customers sourced from WESM since December 2006.
“The result (of the drop in prices)
is how much was bought at the market, that’s the highest spot quantity…we
believe that shows competitive pricing being given by WESM,” PEMC corporate
planning division manager Isidro Cacho said in a briefing yesterday.
Over the past three years, WESM
prices have been steadily declining – from P5.58 per kwh in 2014, P4.46 per kwh
in 2015 and P3.33 per kwh in 2016, PEMC data showed.
The decline in prices was due to the
notable market reforms and developments that ushered in transparency and
competition in the electric power industry, Cacho said.
He said mitigating measures in place
address price spikes such as lowering of offer price cap from P62,000.00 per
megawatt-hour to P 32,000.00 per mwh and the imposition of secondary price cap
mechanism.
PEMC has also complied with its task
in changing the market rules to reflect the preferential dispatch status for
emerging renewable energy resources as mandated by the Renewable Energy Act of
2008, and is recognized as the pioneering effort in Asia.
It said registered capacity of
preferential dispatch resources in the WESM totals to 1,356.6 megawatts (MW).
Preference in the dispatch of
emerging renewable energy resources has been implemented with solar, wind and
run-of river hydro resources classified as must dispatch generating units while
FIT-entitled biomass are accorded priority dispatch generating units.
The spot market operator has also
streamlined the approval process in market membership from 15 days to five
days, Cacho said.
Starting with six market
participants, PEMC now has 280 participants as of March 2017.
“The WESM has been an aid to the
economic growth of the country and developments in the electric power industry.
More than the competition, supply augmentation, investment simulation, and
advancements that the WESM has contributed in nation-building, the WESM boasts
years of integrity through transparency,”PEMC president Melinda Ocampo said.
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