THE Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said the average electricity price in September was P3.88 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), or 34.7 percent lower than the P5.94 per kWh in August.
The low Wholesale Electricity Spot Market average prices were "attributable to the sustained large system supply margin of power plants, as a result of cooler weather conditions," IEMOP Corporate Planning and Communications Manager Arjon Valencia said.
By region, Luzon's average electricity price of P3.80 per kWh was 39.1 percent lower than the P6.24 per kWh last month.
In the Visayas, it was P4.56 per kWh, down by 34.2 percent from the previous P6.93 per kWh.
In Mindanao, however, average electricity price went up by 3.3 percent to P3.48 per kWh from P3.37 per kWh, due to outages in some plants during the period.
As for supply, IEMOP said the Philippine grid had 20,348 megawatts (MW) in September, which was more than the 19,718 MW in August. This was broken down as follows: Luzon, 14,327 MW; Visayas, 2,387 MW; and Mindanao, 3,635 MW.
In terms of demand, the electricity market trader said the country used 13,700 MW in September, broken down as follows: Luzon, 9,746 MW; Visayas, 1,955 MW; and Mindanao, 1,999 MW.