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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Trade & Industry devider NGCP seeks regular rate resets to ensure power grid stability

NGCP seeks regular rate resets to ensure power grid stability

Published Feb 12, 2026 03:41 pm
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is seeking a return to the regularized regulatory cycle to ensure the timely execution of critical transmission projects, following years of delays that have complicated the country’s infrastructure planning.
Cynthia Alabanza, spokesperson for the privately led grid operator, said on Thursday, Feb. 12, that NGCP aims for a “normalized” process for its sixth regulatory period.
The push for predictability follows the Energy Regulatory Commission's (NGCP) recent clearing of a significant backlog by releasing results for the fifth regulatory period, which covers 2021 to 2025.
“We are grateful to the ERC for releasing it [the 5th regulatory period],” she told reporters. “So the backlog in terms of regulatory periods was released already. Moving forward, if the process is faster, it would be normalized for the sixth regulatory period.”
The regulator earlier this week capped NGCP’s allowable revenue for the fifth regulatory period at ₱374.98 billion, a 15.28 percent reduction from the ₱442.60 billion the grid operator originally proposed.
The ERC justified the haircut by stating that several projects included in the proposal had been covered by prior budgets and by moving to end the practice of passing real property taxes on to consumers.
For households and businesses, the lower revenue cap is expected to result in a ₱0.06 per kilowatt-hour reduction in power bills starting in August 2026. However, the financial landscape remains complex for the operator.
Alabanza explained that because regulatory processes were stalled for years, unrecovered costs have accumulated. The company is currently reviewing the ERC’s latest issuance to determine how to manage and spread out the approved amounts from both the fourth and fifth regulatory periods without causing undue volatility in transmission rates.
The ERC, which monitors the operator’s investments and performance to set these revenue limits, expects the system operator to file for its 2027 Maximum Allowable Revenue later this year.
The MAR acts as a state-mandated ceiling on what NGCP can collect from consumers, a mechanism designed to balance the operator’s need for capital against the public's requirement for affordable electricity.
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