Dennis Gaviola

Line men from an electrical contractor check electric meters at the Divisoria area in Manila on September 12, 2022.  The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines advised of possible power interruptions in Luzon on Monday  due to “forced outage” of 7 power plants and “derated capacities” of 3 more plants, which depleted the Luzon grid by 3,627 megawatts. 

 Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

Article (news)

Alvin Elchico

ABS-CBN News

MANILA — Private utilities and electric cooperatives nationwide have said that they cannot afford to absorb the system loss expenses even as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared in his State of the Nation Address that it should not be charged to consumers anymore. Meralco Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan earlier said the industry cannot afford to shoulder all the expenses related to system loss, which could be technical or non-technical.&quot;Who’s going to pay for that? The industry? It’s going to cost tens of billions of pesos. We will not survive,&quot; said Pangilinan.Based on the data from the Energy Regulatory Commission, Meralco had system loss expenses of around P30 billion last year, but it was only allowed to recover 6.5 percent due to the mandated cap on recovery from consumers.For electric cooperatives, the Philreca already said they would not be able to afford to shoulder the system loss, as all of them are non-stock non-profit entities.For the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms or Nasecore, if Pangilinan said Meralco cannot afford to absorb the system loss, then it should open its financial books for scrutiny. Nasecore President Pete Ilagan has long been calling for an audit of Meralco to determine if it has overcharged consumers.Power4people Coalition Convenor Gerry Arances said Pangilinan&#x27;s stance is based on greed for profit. According to Arances, what is P2.7 billion of system loss compared to the more than P50 billion Meralco earned in 2025? Arances said Meralco is even poised to earn more this year as its first-semester profit already climbed to over P26 billion.Meanwhile, in a statement, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin called for patience as the government studies options on how to execute the president&#x27;s objective of removing the system loss charge from the bills of consumers.&quot;We are currently studying the regulations of ERC, legislations and other policies and doing consultations with stakeholders. The objective is to lower electricity rates, and I ask for patience and cooperation of all stakeholders while we craft the policies,&quot; Garin said.

Electric cooperatives said they would not be able to afford to shoulder the system loss, as all of them are non-stock non-profit entities.

Electric cooperatives said they would not be able to afford to shoulder the system loss, as all of them are non-stock non-profit entities.

Power distributors say they can't absorb system loss

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Power distributors say they can't absorb system loss

Alvin Elchico,

ABS-CBN News

Published July 30, 2026 05:51 PM PHT

|

Updated August 07, 2026 06:34 PM PHT

Read More:

system loss

electric cooperative

ERC

Meralco

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