Energy & Mining

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.

Prime Energy will begin supplying indigenous Malampaya natural gas to the 1,200-megawatt Ilijan Power Plant in September, a move expected to lower electricity costs by reducing the plant's dependence on more expensive imported fuel.

Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power Co. is betting on the Philippines' clean energy transition, acquiring a stake in the 600-megawatt Wawa Pumped Storage Hydropower Project in Rizal as demand grows for technologies that can stabilize an increasingly renewable-powered grid.