BROWNOUTS, HIGHER BILLS: Supply shortage to ease only by October, MORE Power says

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

ILOILO CITY – The power supply shortage that has kept the Visayas grid under repeated red and yellow alerts will persist until the end of August and will push electricity rates higher again in September, with relief expected only by October, MORE Electric and Power Corporation said.

The outlook means consumers in Iloilo City and Iloilo province face at least two more billing cycles of elevated charges alongside the manual load dropping that has accompanied the shortage.

Raphael “Rap” Dorilag, manager of the Trading and Sourcing Department of MORE Electric and Power Corporation, laid out the forecast on the utility’s program, MORE Power at Your Service, hosted by Angel P. Tan.

He said the price of electricity depends on purchases made in preceding months, so the high prices recorded during August will be reflected in the September bill.

“So expect naton nga magataas gihapon ang presyo sa kuryente sa September,” Dorilag said, adding that conditions are hoped to ease only by October.

“Para sa akon, this is a sort of a crisis situation already, no?” he said.

Dorilag said the combined capacity of the plants that went offline, including those in Mindanao, is equivalent to the power requirement of an entire island such as Panay, forcing the remaining supply to be rationed through the dropping of load in some areas.

He said two large plants in the Visayas remain out, while Mindanao plants that were expected to help stabilize supply in the region are also on outage or maintenance.

Asked whether the return of Therma Visayas Units 1 and 2 would help the supply and demand margin, Dorilag said the units, at 169 megawatts each, are the largest in the Visayas and are bigger than PCPC and PEDC.

“Definitely, kay sila ang pinakadalagko nga power plant diri sa Visayas,” he said.

The strain is already reflected in the current advisory.

MORE Power is charging an average residential rate of PHP 14.45 per kilowatt-hour for the August 2026 billing cycle, 10 centavos higher than the previous month, while the average commercial rate is PHP 13.58 per kilowatt-hour.

“Sa subong nga billing cycle nga August 2026, ang More Power may ara sang average residential rate nga 14.45, and aton commercial rate 13.58 pesos per kilowatt hour,” Dorilag said.

He said the biggest driver of the increase was the transmission and ancillary service charge, which contributed about 36 centavos.

The FIT-All rate, which Dorilag described as the government-supported rate for renewable energy generation, added about 13 centavos.

The system loss charge also rose, although minimally, by about 1 centavo.

Dorilag said the ancillary service charge is not a new item on the electricity bill.

“Ang ancillary service charge, hindi na siya bag-o nga charges sa aton bill,” he said.

He explained that the charge was previously bundled with the transmission charge because both are billed to distribution utilities by NGCP.

Under ERC Resolution No. 4, Series of 2026, all distribution utilities, not only MORE Power, must reflect regulated transmission and the ancillary service charge as separate items starting with the August bill.

Dorilag said the ancillary service charge covers what NGCP pays generators for power reserves that stabilize the grid.

He stressed that the charges MORE Power collects for its own account have not changed, and that generation and transmission are pass-through charges remitted to suppliers.

Tan said the distribution charge of MORE Power has not increased since 2022, or for three to four years, because distribution utilities must first go through the regulatory body before adjusting their rates.

Dorilag said consumers are contending with outages and higher prices at the same time because both stem from the same supply gap.

“So actually, these are compounding circumstances,” he said. “So double whammy.”

To temper the impact of high spot market prices, Dorilag said MORE Power increased its purchases from bilateral suppliers to 70 percent of its supply this month, from about 66 percent last month, for a 70-30 split against WESM purchases.

He said prices at WESM, the electricity market managed by IEMOP, have gone up, and that fuel prices, particularly coal, have also risen.

The average purchase price at WESM in July was PHP 11.20 per kilowatt-hour, Dorilag said.

He said that if MORE Power sourced its supply from WESM alone, the rate could reach about PHP 18 to PHP 19 per kilowatt-hour once the other bill components are added.

MORE Power also asked ERC, the Energy Regulatory Commission, and IEMOP to allow a second deferment, which lowered the generation charge this month to offset the increase in transmission and ancillary charges.

Dorilag said the utility kept the deferment at that level to avoid burdening future generation charges.

Asked whether consumers could avoid the transmission charge by connecting directly to a power supplier, Dorilag said doing so would leave a distribution utility without recourse if that single plant loses supply.

“So mas better nga damo ang nagakontribute kaysa isa lang ang imo ginahalinan nga source,” he said, adding that drawing from several sources keeps both the rate and the supply stable and cushions fluctuations in price, availability, and reliability.

Tan cited the case of PEDC, which went offline for several days before returning online, and said a directly connected customer would have had to wait for the plant to resume operations.

Dorilag said the Visayas grid is connected to the rest of the country, but transmission constraints with Mindanao and Luzon limit how much supply can be moved into the region.

He appealed to consumers to manage their consumption and to schedule energy-intensive activities outside the peak demand period, which he placed at about 4 or 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., when manual load dropping is most likely.

Dorilag said the trading team monitors prices hourly and daily, and buys from WESM during the early morning window until about 10 or 11 a.m., when prices are lower, before shifting to bilateral supply.

The power distributor reiterated that the ancillary service and transmission charges are pass-through charges, and that the distribution charge of MORE Power has not changed in four years.