• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Electricity consumers in the Visayas, including in Bacolod City and the Negros Island Region, are expected to benefit from the price cap ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission amid the “extraordinarily high electricity prices experienced by consumers in the Visayas and Mindanao grids.”
The ERC ordered Sept. 10 the regional implementation of the secondary price cap (SPC) in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), retroactive to the August 2026 billing period, to “temper the extraordinarily high electricity prices”.
“Based on the Commission’s simulation, applying the SPC regionally would have brought the average August price down from P18,590 per megawatt-hour (MWh) to P8,470/MWh in the Visayas, or a 54 percent reduction; and from P19,560/MWh to P8,690/MWh in Mindanao, for a 56 percent reduction,” the ERC said in a statement.
For the August 2026 billing period and thereafter, the SPC should be computed and applied on a per-region basis, using each grid’s own rolling average price, rather than the system-wide average, without waiting for a grid interconnection outage, as the rules had required, it added.
“Better news for consumers,” Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez said of the ERC order. He earlier asked the Commission to act on the consumers’ bills amid the power deficiency situation.
“Price cap sa Visayas grid, retroactive sa August. Mabuhinan sobra sa katunga ang August spot price, kag makita sa inyo bills,” Benitez posted last night.
The ERC said it acted motu proprio after its own data showed that Visayas and Mindanao recorded a combined 652 hours and 89 hours, respectively, of red and yellow alerts in August, with WESM prices surging to as high as P18,590/MWh in Visayas and P19,560/MWh in Mindanao.
Despite these significant regional price spikes and supply tightness, the existing system-wide SPC mechanism was rarely triggered because relatively lower prices in Luzon pulled down the national average used to determine whether the SPC threshold had been breached, it added.
“Recalculating the SPC on a regional basis, and making it retroactive to August, means that Visayas and Mindanao consumers will see real relief in their bills — not just an acknowledgment of their various letters to us,” ERC chairperson and CEO Francis Saturnino Juan said.
The ERC also ordered the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP), the operator of WESM, to recalculate the August 2026 settlement accordingly, issue the recalculated final statement bill on or before Sept. 20, with the consumer payment due date moved to Sept. 28.
It likewise directed the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to assess the optimal utilization of the existing grid interconnections and submit recommendations to maximize their use within 30 days; and for distribution utilities to promptly and accurately reflect the recalculated, lower SPC-based charges in their billing to end-consumers. | CGC
