Aggregated Power Supply Agreements, Aggregated Crises:Expose Government and Fossil Fuel-Addicted Companies’ Collusion for Coal to Stay Through Questionable Procurement Scheme
Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Sharon Garin’s admission of a “planning failure” to explain the recurring red and yellow alerts is a diversion to hide the real reason for the power outages. The government's recurring narratives on baseload supply and ancillary services have grown tiresome. From 2022 to 2026, the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) found that 70% of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP)-contracted ancillary services market was overly dependent on coal, gas, and diesel, locking consumers into paying much higher prices for the same unreliable fuel sources that caused outages, red and yellow grid alerts, and power price spikes. We need to remind this government that the people will not be fooled by their same old antics, i.e., insistence on coal.
More than six months have passed since President Bongbong Marcos (PBBM) declared a National Energy Emergency. Still, the compounded impacts from the ongoing war continue to not only make communities suffer unduly but also horrifically plague the environment. Protests continue to spring up across provinces and Metro Manila as people express anger and frustration over rising power costs, rampant brownouts, and the government doubling down on privatizing basic services, measly wage increases, and continued lack of support for the nation’s food producers.
While people are busy preparing for the looming Super El Niño and rotational brownouts on their own, government agencies supposed to be in charge, such as the DOE, National Electrification Administration (NEA), and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), are busy working behind the scenes to lock the Philippines to dirty, deadly, costly, and unreliable coal. In the first half of this year, a large number of electric cooperatives were able to transact power supply agreements (PSAs) through two separate aggregated PSAs: Luzon and Visayas Electric Cooperatives Aggregation (LVECA) and Luzon Electric Cooperatives Aggregation (LECA), with coal plants involved in outages.
These two major aggregated power procurements involved 47 electric cooperatives (ECs): 37 ECs from Luzon and 10 ECs from the Visayas. Aggregated power procurement refers to pooling or consolidating the power requirements of multiple electric cooperatives into a single procurement and competitive bidding process and transacting the aggregated PSA with coal plants. Just last month, LVECA concluded by signing the country to another 15-year coal lock-in, amid the energy crisis. One of the six generation companies involved in this aggregation is Therma Visayas, Inc., which continues to trigger red and yellow grid alerts after being offline for weeks on end, causing power outages in the Visayas region.
Three days ago, ERC granted coal-fired plants an extension of forced outages from 16 days to 27 to 32 days, and STEAG PSALM, an old 232-megawatt (MW) power plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, is being readied for recommissioning by Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) when it is supposedly to be retired by 2031 under the Climate Investment Funds-Accelerating Coal Transition (CIF-ACT). The only way they can do this is through collusion, away from public and social media scrutiny.
Consumers are aware that coal is behind the many power outages and high electricity rates, while globally the world is moving away from coal and seeking a post-coal diverse mix of energy sources. The major government players–DOE, NEA, and ERC—are locking consumers into paying the same skyrocketing prices for the same unreliable fuel sources that caused rampant outages. It is clear that the BBM administration’s “energy emergency” aims to further enrich the super-rich and the coaligarchs, not to address the energy crisis and its adverse impacts on Filipinos.
The largest coal plant in Mindanao, GNPower Kauswagan Ltd. Co. (GNPK) coal-fired power plant Units 1-3, has been completely unavailable and accounts for a large part of the 620-880 MW of unavailable electricity in the region from August to September 2026. DOE and National Grid Corporation pronounce a need for new coal plants due to a shortage of energy sources, but are not shutting down faulty coal plants such as GNPK.
The legal basis for aggregate power procurement stems from the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA), which allows the consolidation of power demands to leverage economies of scale, lower electricity tariffs, and increase market competition. This aggregated scheme is a whole-of-government approach to keep leaching what’s left out of Filipinos’ pockets.
The DOE, ERC, BBM administration, and their capitalist cohorts that play huge roles in the energy sector must be thoroughly exposed and held accountable for plunging the Philippines into the deep pit of fossil fuel reliance. There is no other outcome from this atrocious miscarriage of power than multiple casualties and further degradation of the environment. ###
For inquiries, contact:
Sheila Abarra
Senior Media and Communications Officer
Philippine Movement for Climate Justice
Viber: +63-991-669-2356
WhatsApp: +63-938-089-8327
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