Senate President Win Gatchalian wants the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to look into the continuing power shortage in the Visayas and Mindanao, where electricity prices have been significantly higher than in Luzon.
Gatchalian said electricity prices in the spot market from July 26 to August 25 reached P18.59 per kilowatt-hour in the Visayas and P19.56/kWh in Mindanao, compared with P4.80/kWh in Luzon.
“Kung saan pa mataas ang poverty rates, sila pa ang nagbabayad ng mas mataas na kuryente. Obviously, its shortage of power,” he said during a Senate hearing on the proposed 2027 budget of the Department of Energy and its attached agencies.
Gatchalian said the ERC should strictly enforce reliability standards for power generation and distribution companies to help minimize outages and stabilize the grid.
The senator also called for an investigation into possible anti-competitive practices or collusion among power generators, saying this would help determine whether some stakeholders are “gaming the system.”
The Visayas grid recorded 33 red alerts and 96 yellow alerts from January 1 to September 7, according to figures cited during the hearing. Recent NGCP data also showed continuing outages among several power plants in the region.IMT
