BAGUIO — Electricity prices could go up by as much as P4 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) next month due to the war in the Middle East and other factors such as summer demand, regulators said on Thursday.
“Based on scenarios presented by the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (Iemop), electricity market prices could increase by as much as P2 to P4,” Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chairman and CEO Francis Saturnino Juan told reporters.
“I also want to clarify that these increases will not solely be due to the conflict in the Middle East,” he added, noting that prices are also expected to go up during the dry season and could be affected by unplanned outages.
“I would also like to clarify that this will not necessarily have an impact on the generation charge of each distribution utility and will depend on where they are sourcing from and the nature of their power supply agreements.”
The Iemop, which operates the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, confirmed that it had presented the scenarios.
“In view of the ongoing geopolitical tension in the Middle East and its impact on global fuel markets, we at Iemop, conducted market price simulation using established global commodity benchmarks as of March 9, 2026,” it said in a statement.
“The simulation results showed higher prices for coal, natural gas, and oil, and adopted the assumption that rising fuel costs will prompt thermal generators to raise their offer prices to recover higher fuel costs,” it added.
“With higher offer prices, these thermal units in turn could set a higher market clearing price more frequently. As a result, the simulation results indicated a projected increase in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market clearing price of around P2 to P3 per kWh.”
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest distribution utility, earlier this week said it would be raising its rates by P0.6427/kWh in March due to higher ancillary service charges incurred by National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.
The overall rate for a typical household will go up to P13.8161/kWh, or an increase of around P129 in the power bill of a household consuming 200 kWh.
In a related development, the ERC said on Thursday that it had conducted another hearing for a Meralco rate reset, which will likely lead to higher electricity prices.
Meralco has applied for a distribution rate of P2.3436/kWh for the 2027-2030 regulatory period.
Tuesday’s hearing, where key issues were clarified and procedural matters were addressed, will be followed by proceedings on April 6-8 and 13-16.