‘Stop making us pay for grid congestion’ – Leyte board to ERC

Posted on August 16, 2026 at 9:59 am

Eastern Visayas households and businesses have long paid some of the highest electricity rates in the country—not because we consume more, but because a transmission system built decades ago cannot keep up with demand.

Leyte’s Provincial Board has had enough.

The Board passed a resolution authored by 1st District Board Member Wilson Uy, urging the Regional Development Council, the Energy Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy, and the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines to act on a problem that has quietly drained wallets across the province: rising Line Loss and Congestion Costs (LLCC).

The numbers are not small. Transmission grid constraints have pushed LLCC charges higher, inflating monthly bills for households and businesses that have no choice but to pay. The provincial government argues that consumers should not shoulder costs arising from a bottleneck in the grid—costs they did not create and cannot avoid.

Uy’s resolution is direct. It calls on the ERC, DOE, and IEMOP to expedite the release of Net Settlement Surplus Allocation refunds, which are meant to return excess collections to consumers. It also demands reforms to electricity pricing mechanisms so that transmission constraints no longer translate into higher bills for the end user.

The resolution does not call for new taxes or subsidies. It does not demand impossible targets. It asks for something simpler: that the agencies responsible for regulating and operating the power market do their jobs in a way that avoids penalizing consumers for a grid that is lagging.

For residents of Leyte and the rest of Eastern Visayas, the cost of electricity is not an abstract policy issue. It is a household expense. It determines whether families can afford enough food, whether small businesses can stay open, and whether the region can attract the investment it needs.

If the ERC and DOE are serious about protecting consumers, this resolution should be acted on. It should be the starting point for a conversation on how to fix a system that charges Eastern Visayas for power we generate but cannot deliver without penalty.

The provincial board has spoken. The regulators must now take action.

Photo courtesy: ERC