Grid troubles in the Visayas pushed the Philippines to the top of Southeast Asia’s electricity price rankings in June, with the Department of Energy pointing to a string of forced plant shutdowns as the driver behind the record.
Energy Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said residential consumers paid an average of P12.43 per kilowatt-hour during the month, edging past Singapore’s P12.34 per kWh. The margin, while narrow at 0.093 pesos per kWh, was enough to move the country ahead of a market long regarded as the region’s most expensive.
Repeated yellow alerts across the Visayas were central to the increase. “We had the highest residential electricity rates in Asean, mainly due to the yellow alerts in [the] Visayas brought about in turn by lack of electricity supply overall in the island group,” Guevara said.
The supply strain forced generators to lean on costlier fuel sources to meet load. Seasonal factors compounded the problem, with consumption climbing through the dry months. “Moreover, another reason was demand being high during the dry season, which in turn forced generation companies to use the more expensive fuels to keep power plants, and also made electricity remain at high levels,” she added.
The DOE tied the spike specifically to conditions in the central islands, where thin supply left the grid vulnerable and prices climbed well above the national norm.
