A new way to think about power

While many are still busy making resolutions for 2026, how about we take a step back and instead do a rethinking for the new year? In particular, perhaps we can revisit how we think about one of the most common, mundane items we often take for granted in today’s modern life: electricity.

For the most part, as ordinary Filipino consumers, we consider ourselves passive, resigned or helpless when it comes to matters concerning electric power. As long our gadgets get charged when we plug them in, or the light turns on when we flip the switch, or the machine starts working when we push the button, we do not really bother ourselves with how everything works behind the plug, switch or button.

Many of us are not even conscious of when and how much we consume in terms of Pesos or kilowatt-hours (kWh)! That is, until the power bill comes a few days after the end of the month — then, for some of us, reality bites. We are then surprised to see the increase in the amounts due compared to last month’s or last year’s bill. A few may get curious (“What goes into my power bill that causes these price movements monthly? How come the power bill in our house in the province is lower [or higher]?”), while some get enraged (“We suffered in the heat because we did not use air-conditioning, and we still get this bill increase! More than half of my monthly income just goes to pay for electricity, there is nothing left for the family’s needs!”).

Let us take a pause here and consider: would you believe that customers today can actually have more control over electricity spending than many realize? This is not about taking to heart those energy saving tips, although that is definitely a good start. No, this is taking control in a more deliberate and long-term measure, one that allows consumers — individuals, business, and organizations alike — greater agency over their energy destiny.

Almost 25 years ago, in June 2001, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) was passed to restructure, reshape, and re-design the Philippine power sector. Standing on the three pillars of restructuring, privatization, and deregulation, its main goal was to allow consumers the ability to control how they source and spend for their electricity supply under the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) program. Retail Competition paved the way for consumers to contract for and buy electricity on a retail basis, at a price and under terms acceptable to both the consumer and the retail supplier. It is up to the parties to agree, for instance, if they want a fixed price contract, a discounted one, moving or pegged to an index, or any pricing formula. It is not subject to the approval of the distribution utility (DU) or the regulator. Open Access, on the other hand, requires DUs (private DUs and electric cooperatives) to allow the use of their wires and network, subject to the same delivery rate, whether or not it is the DU or the consumer that contracted for the supply.

Meanwhile, seven years after EPIRA, in December 2008, the Renewable Energy Act (RE Act) was enacted to accelerate the use of renewable energy (RE) in our power system. The law is important not just because it granted incentives to attract investors to a sector that, since EPIRA, has been entirely dependent on private funding, but also because it recognized and required regulations for the entry of new, emerging, or smaller RE technologies, such as solar panels or wind turbines, to contribute to the system.

These two laws — EPIRA and the RE Act — are symbiotic in ushering in this new era in the Philippine power sector where consumers have genuine options that allow more control over their power bills as well as the future of the power industry. Let us explore some of these options, from the least disruptive to the most radical, from a consumer’s vantage point:

1. Do you know that electricity costs vary depending on the time of use? For Meralco customers, for example, power consumed from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Mondays to Saturdays — known as the peak hours — is about P2.14/kWh* more expensive than any other hour (off-peak hours) during those days. On Sundays, the peak hours are only from 6 to 8 p.m. In other words, if one can move around their power-consuming activities to the off-peak hours, savings can immediately be realized without any capital investment. Consumers of most private DUs and electric cooperatives can avail of the peak/off-peak pricing programs, subject to prior registration and meter readiness.

2. Consumers who want more savings regardless of the hour of use and are not particular about the generation source (RE or non-RE), as long as it is cheaper than the power supplied by the DU, can source from more than 50 registered retail suppliers operating in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao under the RCOA program. Consumers, however, who are intentional in sourcing only from RE supply can be served by more than 20 Green Energy Option Program (GEOP) Suppliers providing RE-only supply on a 24/7 basis. Data from the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), as of September 2025, show significant spikes in the number of RCOA participants in January and August of last year. This could be attributed to the lower average generation rates for RCOA and GEOP customers offered by suppliers, as well as the implementation of the enhanced Retail Aggregation Program (RAP) which practically made RCOA available to all consumers regardless of size or average consumption level. Overall, according to the latest PEMC data, RCOA customers realized P19.25 billion estimated savings in power bills for the first three quarters of 2025, while sales to GEOP customers enabled the avoidance of 65,642.77 metric tCO2 (total carbon dioxide) in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the same period.

3. For those, on the other hand, who want to level things up and be more self-reliant by producing their own power from clean sources, solar panel installations are increasingly more viable, especially if enrolled under the net metering program of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). After the surge in electricity rates in 2022 resulting from higher coal and oil prices given global supply disruptions, the ERC recorded an unprecedented 121% increase in net-metering participants from 2022 to 2023. This is tangible proof that more consumers are realizing the value proposition of being prosumers — consumers who are also producers. Today, solar home system providers are already providing panels, with or without battery systems, at competitive prices as well as deferred payment schemes that make this option progressively more viable for consumers.

4. A variant or subset of large prosumers is also emerging in the country, with the recent inauguration of the 4.1MWp (megawatt peak) solar project with 5.5MWh (megawatt-hour) battery storage solution in Balesin, Quezon now supplying 60% of the island’s power requirements, as well as the 6.55MWp solar rooftop-socialized housing project in Cavite. It illustrates one of the innovative solutions still at nascent stages in the Philippines but already with mature and established models seen in micro-grid and community RE projects in Japan and other areas. Proponents argue that decentralized solutions are in fact a better fit for many areas in the country where grid or DU connection is not viable or is rendered unreliable due to frequent typhoons or man-made disasters.

5. Finally, there is also room for those in the extremes: those who want to be directly involved in the sector and those who do not want to be bothered thinking about any of the options above since they do not really mind paying the amounts charged by their DUs every month. What perhaps would appeal to both sets is investing in stocks of power companies (grid operator, DUs, owners of generation plants, retail suppliers). While public participation, in general, remains limited for ownership of these stocks given the EPIRA mandate of listing only a minimum 15% of the shares of DUs and generation companies and 20% of the grid concessionaire, RE companies Alternergy (ALT) and Citicore (CREC) offered and were able to get subscription to around 30% of their respective common shares during their initial public offering (IPOs).

Admittedly, there are more variants and nuances among the options identified above (price hedging, for instance, and direct participation in the wholesale electricity spot market) as well as within each option (e.g., prepaid metering options available already in some areas improving viability of micro-grid set-ups). There are also issues that will take time and discussion to be fully addressed, particularly given the legacy contracts of DUs.

While we continue to challenge premises and push the envelope to make the Philippine energy system become more accessible, inclusive and reliable, today’s consumers can already explore many options available to shape and reshape their energy destiny.

*Based on Meralco’s website, as of Jan. 2, 2026.

Monalisa C. Dimalanta is a senior partner at Puyat Jacinto & Santos Law (PJS Law). She was the chairperson and CEO of the Energy Regulatory Commission from 2022 to 2025, and chairperson of the National Renewable Energy Board from 2019 to 2021.