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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Trade & Industry devider January power bills seen rising as Visayas, Mindanao spot market prices surge

January power bills seen rising as Visayas, Mindanao spot market prices surge

Published Jan 7, 2026 11:39 am
Electricity rates are set to rise in January as higher demand in Visayas and Mindanao pushed up Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) prices last December.
Data gathered by the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) revealed that the system average price rose by 10 percent to ₱4.38 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from ₱3.98/kWh. Demand during the Christmas season held steady at 13,440 megawatts (MW), while supply inched up slightly by 1.2 percent to 20,233 MW.
Forced outages in Mindanao last month, coupled with a marginal 1.2-percent increase in power demand, sent spot market prices soaring by 56.7 percent to ₱7.82/kWh from ₱4.99/kWh. Supply during the period declined by seven percent to 3,287 MW from 3,532 MW.
Despite a slight four-percent increase in the region’s supply to 2,524 MW, spot market prices in Visayas jumped to ₱7.22/kWh from ₱5.29/kWh, as IEMOP cited a lower supply margin caused by higher demand. In December, demand rose by 10 percent to 1,978 MW from 1,797 MW.
According to IEMOP corporate planning and communication manager Arjon Valencia, only one market intervention occurred between Nov. 26 and Dec. 25, 2025.
“This intervention occurred on Dec. 13, 2025, at interval [1:25 p.m.] and affected Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. It was initiated by the market operator due to the failure to generate real-time dispatch (RTD) results for that interval,” he said on Viber.
While Visayas and Mindanao faced higher WESM rates, Luzon’s power supply and demand showed steadier trends. Its spot market price fell by 15 percent to ₱2.98/kWh from ₱3.52/kWh, as supply rose to 14,422 MW while demand declined to 9,324 MW.
IEMOP also said the effective spot settlement price (ESSP) stood at ₱5.55/kWh, while spot market volume increased to 13.2 percent of total traded power.
“There was an increase in WESM-registered capacities attributed to solar, hence the total capacity is 30,085 MW,” Valencia added, noting that the share of solar power rose to 4.1 percent from 3.9 percent.
Based on IEMOP’s latest data, renewable energy (RE) accounted for 26 percent of total generation. Coal increased its contribution to 56.4 percent from 53.6 percent. Wind power also gained momentum, rising to 2.3 percent from 1.7 percent, while geothermal edged up to 8.6 percent from 8.2 percent. Hydropower, however, declined to 8.8 percent from 11.1 percent, while natural gas slipped to 17 percent from 19 percent.
WESM prices represent the wholesale cost of electricity paid by distribution utilities and large users when purchasing power from the spot market. These serve as a benchmark for the actual cost of supplying electricity and reflect real-time conditions such as demand, supply availability, and power plant outages. Distribution utilities (DUs) may pass these charges on to consumers.
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