The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said there will be no major additional power plant capacity this year after the 668 megawatts (MW) GN Power Dinginin coal plant is integrated into the Luzon grid by June.
Robinson Descanzo, IEMOP trading operations head and acting chief operating officer, said 1,292.6 MW of additional capacity is expected in the entire country until June.
Descanzo in a press briefing said the country will heavily depend on the reliability of existing power plants during the summer months.
The Department of Energy (DOE) warned a possible red alert – actual power supply against demand is insufficient and power interruptions are imminent – on the weeks of May 16 and May 23 in the Luzon grid. DOE’s red alert projection factored in adjustments in the revised maintenance schedules of power plants as well as the possibility of forced outages of power generators of an average of 536 MW.
IEMOP said for January and February or right before the summer months, 385 MW is expected to start commercial operations from battery energy storage systems (BESS) and solar projects.
During the actual summer months of March, April and May, 67.6 MW from BESS and geothermal are seen to be operational.
In June, 840 MW will start commercial operations from coal and oil-based power plants.
Descanzo added the decision of banks and other financing firms to avoid further investments on coal-fired power projects have led in the sudden rise of interest for BESS.
“We are caught in the middle (of a situation) where coal developments have stopped. There are developers that reviewed their options and dropped plans for coal. Solar, biomass, wind and battery will be pursued instead. There are many BESS (projects) for commissioning given the fact that the said technology is easy to install,” Descanzo said.
IEMOP also said the average price of electricity in the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) in Luzon and Visayas for January increased to P6.98 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from last month’s P6.43 per kwh.
IEMOP’s data for the month only covered until January 25 and may still be adjusted slightly.
IEMOP said the over 9 percent improvement was mainly due to the thin supply margin available due to forced and unplanned outages of major power plants.
Average power supply available in WESM for January hit 12,142 MW, over 4 percent lower from November’s 12,702 MW.
IEMOP said average demand for the period also went down by over 7 percent to 8,544 MW from 9,232 MW.
The WESM figures collated by IEMOP only reflect the situation in the Luzon and Visayas grids as Mindanao is not yet fully connected to the marker.
