At the recent ENERCON 2025 Conference hosted by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), I presented a simple but uncomfortable truth: electricity in the Philippines is expensive not because of technology, fuel, or even inefficiency alone—but because of the financialization of regulation itself.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines has asserted that its transmission charges represent just 2.98 percent of a typical consumer’s electricity bill, amid ongoing scrutiny of power costs and regulatory oversight.
It pointed out that most new projects entering the grid are solar plants, which do not generate power at night, further straining supply and driving up prices.
Interconnecting islands for electricity may seem desirable for enhancing energy efficiency and reliability, but it may be paradoxically utterly wrong today.