Pete Ilagan of Nasecore is calling on the ERC to put information on consumers’ bills about the cost of power from IPPs compared to that from the WESM spot market.
I’m all for transparency. And I believe this information should be made available, easily accessible, and on-line.
But IPP purchases and spot market purchases are purchases of two different products.
IPP purchases, in most cases, have a fixed capacity price over many years – regardless of what happens in the maket. Plus – the output of that IPP is dedicated to the purchaser – it’s guaranteed firm power if the plant is running.
Spot power is "as available". There are no guarantees as to what it’s price will be next month or next year and there’s no guarantee that it will even be available in the amount you want, or at all.
Just because spot prices at a moment in time are less than power from IPPs doesn’t necessariliy say anything about the prudence of the IPP purchases. They are a different products. It could say something, but it’s a complex issue.
Putting this raw information on consumer bills is probably a bad idea.