MANILA - A group of power plant operators said it does not foresee any power shortage next year in the country's largest power grid even during the traditionally critical months of the dry or summer season.

The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said it does not expect any yellow or red alerts to be raised for the Luzon Grid in the summer of 2025.

A yellow alert is declared by the National Grid Corp of the Philippines when power reserves fall below a certain threshold, which means rotating brownouts may be declared. A red alert meanwhile is raided when the power supply is insufficient to meet demand, meaning that outages can be expected.

Power utilities and electric cooperatives get a huge chunk of their power supply from the wholesale electricity spot market operated by IEMOP.

Sid Cacho, IEMOP spokesman said that based on the grid operating plan, if everything works and no plant bogs down, electricity supply will not be a problem come election season until election day.

MERALCO POWER SUPPLY CONTRACT

Meanwhile, the Energy Regulatory Commission has approved Meralco's 1,200 megawatt power supply contract with excellent energy resources inc. (EERI) using imported natural gas.

ERC Chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta said the contract has been “approved subject to” a number of conditions. The company proposed a levelized cost of electricity rate of P7.1094 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) but the regulator approved a rate of P6.0038 per kWh set for 15 years.

A group meanwhile said consumers will eventually pay for higher fuel prices of fossil-based energy like natural gas. Power4people Convenor Gerry Arances said the ERC should have prioritized renewable energy more as electricity prices produced using it costs P2-P4/kwh lower than fossil based fuel.

But Dimalanta said the country's renewable energy sources may not be enough to supply the needs of big utilities like Meralco. She said the ERC needs to balance the issue of having enough supply and being environment friendly. The ERC has to ensure adequate supply particularly for the summer months of next year and succeeding years, she added.