Marcos pledges relief from power shortages, high electric prices

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As households are seeing increasing rates for electric consumpton, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday bared his plan to build energy infrastructure that to provide some relief.

'Batid nating lahat na ang presyo ng kuryente dito sa ating bansa ay mataas. Kaya patuloy tayo sa pagdagdag ng mga imprastraktura ng kuryente na magpapababa ng presyo ng kalaunan. Sa kabilang banda, tinitiyak din nating makatarungan ang paniningil sa mga konsyumer,' Marcos said in his State of the Nation Address (SONA).

(We are aware that the prices of electricity in the country are high. That is why we will continue to add more electrical infrastructure to lower the prices in the market. Moreover, we guarantee that consumers will have fair prices.)

Facing a joint session of Congress at Batasang Pambansa, Marcos acknowledged continued blackouts experienced in some areas. He vowed to urgently address the country's energy needs, adding that power supply will rise in the coming years.

'As energy projects get completed and new investments pour into the sector, we expect our nation's power supply to increase at a steady pace to meet our growing demand in the next few years. Nonetheless, we are continuously diagnosing and urgently addressing power shortages, as well as the systemic causes of blackouts in unserved and underserved areas,' Marcos said.

Marcos said that to alleviate the revolving blackouts, the government has so far made use of off-grid systems and small solar-power utilities. He also pointed to projects such as the newly inaugurated Mariveles-Hermosa-San Jose transmission line in Bataan, Pampanga and Bulacan, as well as the Cebu-Negros-Panay backbone project.

In his SONA last year, he pledged total electrification in the country by the end of his term.

'Since my assumption into office, almost half a million homes have been given access to electricity. We will spare no effort to achieve full household electrification by the end of my term. One hundred percent is within our reach,' Marcos said in his 2023 SONA.

However, the country was plagued by a series of power shortages in 2024.

Days after New Year, a region-wide blackout hit Western Visayas. In response, Marcos said that the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines must take responsibility for the power outage.

At the height of the El Niño phenomenon in April, the Luzon and Visayas power grids were placed in red and yellow alerts for several days