WHOLESALE electricity prices in the spot market went down in July due to lower demand, with an official of the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) expressing hope that this will continue.
In an online briefing Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, IEMOP vice president for trading operations, Isidro Cacho Jr. attributed the lower demand to improvement in weather conditions, with temperatures declining compared to the summer months.
He said the drop in prices is particularly big in the Visayas, which have been experiencing yellow and red alert during the summer months because of an uptick in demand amidst supply issues.
“Consistent with seasonal demand patterns during rainy months, we are observing a decline in the system demand, while generation availability improved in parts of the Visayas, contributing to lower market prices. If current supply, demand and transmission conditions continue, market prices may remain relatively moderate,” he said.
Cacho, however, pointed out that “actual market outcomes will continue to depend on generation availability, electricity demand and overall system conditions.”
IEMOP data presented during the day showed that average demand for the July 2026 billing period reached 14,936 megawatts (MW), 3.4 percent lower than the 15,454 MW in the previous month.
Supply also went down by around 2.6 percent to around 20,587 MW from the month-ago’s 21,133 MW.
This, resulted in the drop in average wholesale price by around 13.1 percent to around P8.31/kilowatt hour (kWh) from P9.56/kWh in the June 2026 billing period, although the rate is different per grid.
In particular, the Visayas grid posted the highest drop at 21.9 percent to P11.20/kWh from P14.45/kWh last month.
Mindanao followed with an 18.5 percent decline to P10.39/kWh from month-ago’s P12.75/kWh, and Luzon, down by 8.2 percent to P7.30/kWh from P7.95/kWh in the previous month.
Cacho said this improvement is expected as the rainy season comes.
For the Visayas grid in particular, he cited fewer days of yellow alerts as demand declines, which he sees continuing and being supported by the return of more power plants to operation.
He said the elevated electricity prices in the Visayas are expected for this month “but we expect that as supply level improves, it will go down to a single digit.” / PNA
