THE Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said the average electricity spot market price in early October rose to P9.31 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from P9.12 per kWh in September and P7.26 per kWh in August.

IEMOP considers the September average to be the high for the year, with October results still partial and subject to validation.

IEMOP said that in September, demand on the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) rose 1.47% to 10,639 megawatts (MW), while the average supply fell 4.73% or 675 MW to 13,599 MW due to generator outages.

The spot market is where the power industry buys power when its long-term supply agreements are insufficient. They need to pay spot prices, which are at a premium to power contracted earlier for forward delivery. 

IEMOP said power generated by diesel plants totaled 220-gigawatt hours (GWh) or 2.9% of the generation mix in September, up from 93 GWh or 1.2% in August. 

Coal power plants accounted for 4,434 GWh or 57.6%, natural gas 1,407 GWh or 18.3%, geothermal 772 GWh or 10%, hydro 582 GWh or 7.6%, variable renewable energy resources 172 GWh or 2.8%, biomass 67 GWh or 0.9%, and battery energy storage systems 2 GWh or 0.03%. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

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