Energy & Mining

Electricity rates for Meralco customers are expected to drop by an average of ₱0.36 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) starting September 2026, thanks to a new local natural gas agreement.

The Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) and the Philippine Energy Research and Policy Institute (PERPI) have signed a three-year agreement to work together on studies aimed at making the country’s electricity market run better. The deal establishes a formal partnership for research, policy guidance and information sharing.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has established a new Joint Task Force alongside the Energy Regulatory Commission, the National Electrification Administration, and electric cooperatives to help remove system loss charges and related value-added tax from power bills. Energy Secretary Sharon Garin emphasized the administration's stance that consumers should only pay for the electricity they actually consume, rather than bearing the cost of losses they did not cause.

The National Electrification Administration (NEA) has disbursed P1.64 billion in loans to 23 electric cooperatives across the country for the first six months of 2026. This is 6.5 percent higher than the P1.54 billion released in the same period of 2025.

Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. (Prime Infra) said construction of its 600-megawatt Wawa Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Power Project has reached 18.65 percent completion, as executives from Japan's Kansai Electric Power Co. visited the site following their investment in the strategic energy storage facility.