The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is exploring collaboration with peer-regulator National Energy Authority (NEA) of Papua New Guinea on how both countries can address  high electricity rates in their respective energy markets. ERC Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta noted that Philippines and Papua New Guinea are both developing countries with similar challenges on energy affordability, "so we expect to exchange ideas on various policy considerations.” The Philippines, in particular, has always been known to have one of the highest power rates in Asia, a dilemma even with the industry’s restructuring for more than two decades already. The ERC has given word that it will pursue regulatory tools and approaches, so it can deliver on the promise of the Marcos administration to bring down electricity rates for consumers. Sky-high electricity rates in the Philippines are not just some sort of "daylight robbery" on residential end-users, it is also serving as a major disincentive to targeted flow of foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the country, especially for power-intensive industries in the manufacturing sector. Without the country resolving the basic dilemma of exorbitant electricity rates, it is deemed that the Philippines would not be able to attain the level of economic successes already gained by neighbors in the Southeast Asian region. Apart from addressing expensive power rates, Dimalanta emphasized that another area of cooperation they can push with PNG’s regulatory authority will be on the experience of the Philippines on ramping up renewable energy (RE) installations, being the flagship policy underpinning the country’s energy transition agenda. The ERC conveyed that “the NEA of Papua New Guinea is mandated to develop renewable resources and implement electrification roll-out in their country. It is responsible for introducing needed reforms in order to fulfill the government’s aspiration to deliver affordable and reliable electricity in the country.” Another sphere of "experience sharing" that the two countries have been navigating is on the plan of Papua New Guinea to pursue liberalization of its own energy sector. “We can share with them our lessons learned from restructuring the sector from a vertically integrated system (which is what they have now) to separating generation, transmission and distribution sectors,” Dimalanta stressed; although she has not specified if the ERC will also be forthright in telling its counterpart-regulator to avoid the array of mistakes that the Philippines had encountered in the deregulation of its power sector. More than 20 years after the power sector of the Philippines had been tossed into the hands of the private sector, the promise of the Electricity Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) for affordable power rates as well as reliable and efficient electricity services had not been squarely attained until now. By far, the private sector players are gaining higher profitability in their businesses, but there had not been much effort really to improve services for consumers and the industry’s problem keeps circling back to the basic issue of supply and demand.