By CESAR JOLITO III
A consumer advocacy group is set to file formal complaints before the Energy Regulatory Commission this week against key players in the power sector, citing what it described as “excessive and unreasonable” electricity charges in the Negros Island Region (NIR).
In a press statement released yesterday, Wennie Sancho, president of the Alliance of Concerned Consumers in Electricity and Social Services (ACCESS), said the group will charge several generating companies, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
Sancho said the planned complaint was prompted by high electricity costs recorded from January to April 2026, during which WESM clearing prices reportedly reached between P14 and P18 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), alongside continued increases in transmission charges.
“Generation and transmission are public services,” Sancho stressed, arguing that current rates are placing a heavy burden on consumers in the region.
ACCESS is calling for a voluntary cap of P6.50 per kWh on generation charges in NIR for the second and third quarters of 2026.
The group is also urging the suspension of transmission rate increases by NGCP until the completion of the Cebu-Negros-Panay 230-kilovolt interconnection project, as well as the implementation of immediate price mitigation measures within the Visayas grid under WESM.
Copies of the complaint will also be furnished to the Department of Energy, as well as the energy committees of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and all distribution utilities operating in the region, according to the group.
Sancho warned that rising electricity costs are pushing ordinary consumers to the brink, noting that a minimum wage earner paying around P3,000 monthly for electricity out of a P14,300 income reflects more than just cost recovery.
“That is consumer impoverishment,” he said, adding that affordable electricity should be treated as a basic right rather than dictated solely by market forces./CJ, WDJ