Energy & Mining

Stakeholders including the Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA) and the Department of Finance (DOF) have voiced strong optimism over the transformative economic promise of Executive Order (EO) 122, signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to establish a national framework for critical minerals.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is confident the entire 400 megawatts (MW) of capacity on offer in the special waste-to-energy (WTE) round of the Green Energy Auction (GEA) will attract full investor interest, signaling strong market confidence in the country’s clean energy expansion.

The Philippines will align policies to attract more investments into critical minerals while encouraging higher-value processing and manufacturing, as the government seeks to capture a larger share of global mineral supply chains.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Monday (24 August 2026) clarified that Negros Electric and Power Corp. (NEPC) was operating well within its allowable system losses cap after being wrongly identified as noncompliant with the cap for private distribution utilities (DUs).

The Department of Energy (DOE) has estimated that at least ₱7.5 billion in investments will be required to fully eliminate non-technical systems loss across the country’s power network, even as it launched the Brigada Kontra Jumper program on Monday to curb electricity theft and related abuses through the eGovPH digital platform. Systems loss refers to the gap between energy produced and energy delivered, split into technical losses—an unavoidable physical effect of power transmission—and non-technical losses, driven primarily by illegal connections, meter tampering, and power pilferage. These losses are currently passed on to all consumers as a uniform charge collected by distributors and electric cooperatives, making the issue a direct financial concern for every household and business.