The Energy Regulatory Commission urged distribution utilities to implement a staggered payment scheme to mitigate the impact of higher power rates on consumers resulting from Middle East hostilities.
The ERC encouraged utilities, in coordination with their suppliers, to submit recovery plans that allow consumers to pay for increases over time rather than in a single billing cycle. This approach aims to ease the immediate financial burden on households while ensuring legitimate costs are recovered.
ERC Chairperson Francis Saturnino Juan emphasized the importance of proactive regulatory oversight during this period of global uncertainty.
“In times of global volatility, our foremost responsibility is to protect Filipino consumers while ensuring the continued stability of our power sector,” Juan said. “By requiring early and transparent reporting from DUs, the commission is better positioned to review rate increases, validate their basis and implement measures—such as staggered recovery—that will help ease the burden on consumers.”
The ERC directed all utilities experiencing a significant increase in generation costs to submit detailed reports to enable timely regulatory intervention. The move follows the declaration of a state of national energy emergency under Executive Order No. 110 and enables the commission to monitor price movements and validate cost increases before they are passed on to consumers.
The ERC also modified the current automatic generation cost pass-through mechanism. The directive applies to utilities with an increase in their blended generation rate of more than P1 per kilowatt-hour compared with the previous month.
These utilities are required to submit the basis for their rate adjustments, including detailed computations, supporting invoices from power suppliers and any proposed staggered recovery schemes. Data must be submitted electronically at least five days before the scheduled release of monthly consumer bills.
The commission said the measure is anchored on government efforts to cushion the impact of rising global fuel prices—driven by hostilities in the Middle East—on electricity costs.
For consumers, an increase of more than P1 per kWh in the generation charge can significantly affect monthly electricity bills, particularly for vulnerable households. The generation charge typically accounts for the largest portion of electricity bills and fluctuates based on the cost of power supply.
