Electricity spot market sees double-digit price drop in May
The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) announced an 11 percent drop in Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) prices in May.
IEMOP data, released on Tuesday, June 3, showed that the average price eased to ₱4.01 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), while the system supply increased by four percent to 22,218 megawatts (MW).
According to IEMOP, the continued heat during the billing period drove the increase in overall system demand.
“The price trend from April to May 2025 showed a decline, in contrast to the same period in 2024, where prices increased. This difference was due to a higher supply margin in May 2025,” IEMOP stated.
Similarly, alongside the large average supply, demand grew by 2.9 percent to 15,169 MW throughout the month.
Among the three regions, Mindanao experienced the largest spot market price drop at 24.3 percent to ₱3.11/kWh. Visayas also saw a 17.9 percent WESM price decline to ₱3.71/kWh.
Luzon, despite having the smallest decrease in May, still saw a 7.9 percent slowdown in its spot market prices at ₱4.23/kWh.
Luzon's supply and demand both increased this month, reaching 15,620 MW and 10,993 MW, respectively.
Visayas’ demand rose to 2,078 MW, while its supply increased to 2,664 MW.
Mindanao, on the other hand, saw its demand ease down to 2,098 MW, but its supply expanded by four percent to 3,934 MW.
Regarding the overall generation mix, coal power's share slightly increased to 59.9 percent in the previous billing period, while renewable energy (RE) contributed 22 percent.
Natural gas maintained a 17 percent share, while oil-based power declined to 0.4 percent.
Hydropower generation jumped to 7.7 percent in May, offsetting the downward trend experienced last January.
Solar power generation, however, decreased from 4.8 percent to 4.6 percent.