The reserve market opens

On 26 January 2024 the market operator began co-optimised trading of energy and reserves: the plants that hold back capacity to cover a trip or a swing in demand are now paid a price set every five minutes, in the same dispatch as the energy they sell. Until then, reserves had been bought by the system operator under fixed contracts, and the cost had been a line on the transmission bill.

Compiled in September 2026 from the releases of the time, with the revisions the agencies have published since. Nothing here is a forecast.

What a reserve is

A grid needs capacity it is not using: spinning units ready to pick up load in seconds if a plant trips, and slower units that can restore the margin within minutes. The old contracts paid a few plants a fixed fee to hold it. The market pays whoever offers it cheapest, hour by hour, and in principle lets more plants, including batteries, into the business.

What the first weeks did

Prices for reserves in February were far above what the contracts had cost, and the amount passed to consumers was large enough that the regulator ordered the market's operation suspended in early March while the rules were revised. It reopened later in the year with caps and a tighter procurement. A new market finding its price is normal; a new market finding it on the customers' bill is what the regulator exists to stop.

Why a plant with its own generation should notice

A reserve market is a price for availability, which is the thing a self-generating site has and the grid lacks. An industrial plant with a turbine or an engine that can be turned up at short notice is a candidate reserve provider, either directly, if it is large enough to register, or through an aggregator. The revenue is small next to the fuel saving, but it is a revenue for standing still.

The interconnection in the same weeks

The submarine link between Mindanao and the Visayas was energised in the same period, joining the three grids for the first time. Mindanao's surplus could now flow north, and the reserve on one island could cover a trip on another. Both changes point the same way: a national market, priced finely, in which what a plant can offer at 2 p.m. in May is worth more than what it offers at midnight in September.

We work with developers and technology providers on the Philippine execution side: permits, grid, fuel and construction. Tell us about the project. The figures behind each quarter are in the quarterly market brief.