The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is seeking to accelerate regulatory approvals to unlock more investments in power generation, transmission, and distribution after facilitating P71.3 billion in consumer refunds in the last 12 months.

ERC chairperson and CEO Francis Saturnino C. Juan said Saturday the regulator’s next phase would focus on encouraging investments in additional power capacity while continuing to clear regulatory backlogs and act on the capital expenditure and operational requirements of regulated entities.

Investments to strengthen power industry

Faster regulatory action, he said, would help facilitate investments needed to strengthen the power industry.

“When I assumed the leadership of the ERC one year ago, we inherited long-standing backlogs, delayed rate resets, and an energy transition moving faster than our regulatory frameworks,” Juan said.

From August 2025 to July 2026, the ERC approved 250 Power Supply Agreement cases and 144 capital expenditure projects, compared with just six approvals in each category during the comparable 12-month period before the current Commission.

The regulator also issued 2,350 decisions and orders, 6,936 licenses and authorizations, and 38 rule-making resolutions.

Consumer relief reached P71.3 billion in refunds during the period. The ERC also resolved 171 consumer cases, addressed 4,640 informal complaints, and issued 347 show-cause orders.

The Commission widened access to the competitive electricity market by lowering the threshold for Retail Competition and Open Access to 100 kilowatts from 500 kW.

Measures supporting energy transition

It also stepped up measures supporting the energy transition, with net-metering registrations surging 248.75 percent from August 2025 to June 2026 to 23,331 qualified end-users and more than 232,000 kilowatts-peak of distributed clean energy.