October 27, 2026 | 4:05pm
An electric lineman repairs a power line along Jupiter Street in Makati on March 25, 2026, amid rising electricity costs and concerns over the country's energy supply.
The STAR / Ryan Baldemor
MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian called on the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Tuesday, October 27, to hold erring power firms accountable amid high electricity prices and recurring grid alerts in the Visayas and Mindanao.
"Other than brownout alerts, electricity rates in the Visayas and Mindanao are also extremely high. We cannot let this go unaddressed. The DOE needs to come up with concrete solutions," Gatchalian said in Filipino.
He said generation companies that fail to perform or engage in abusive practices should face heavy penalties, while the DOE and ERC should work together to address the problem.
In a separate interview, ERC Legal Service Director Maria Corazon Gines said a secondary price cap is in place in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) to limit sustained price spikes.
Under the current rules, the P7,423-per-megawatt-hour secondary price cap takes effect when the 72-hour rolling average electricity price exceeds P12,413 per MWh. The mechanism is triggered automatically once the threshold is breached and does not require a separate ERC announcement.
Gines said the commission is coordinating with the DOE to prepare the power sector for higher demand during El Niño.
"The DOE and ERC are urging plants to complete their preventative maintenance activities so that when El Niño arrives, these plants are immediately ready to supply power," Gines said.
Visayas grid under alert
The statements come as the Visayas grid continues to experience tight power supply and recurring red and yellow alerts.
The grid was again placed under red and yellow alerts Tuesday, with the red alert scheduled from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and yellow alerts from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and again from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Power plant outages and reduced generation capacity have repeatedly cut available supply to the grid in recent weeks.
According to grid data cited Tuesday, 24 plants were on forced outage, while another 19 were operating at reduced capacity, leaving 811.6 megawatts unavailable to the grid.