Investment and markets

The order signed on 20 June 2024 cut the tariff on imported rice from 35% to 15% until 2028, after rice inflation had passed 24% in March. Rice is a tenth of the consumer basket, and the mills' residue follows the harvest, not the tariff.

23 July 2024 · 2 min read

Luzon and the Visayas went to red alert on 16 and 17 April 2024 as El Niño cut hydro output, forced outages took large plants off line and demand set a record. The dry season is the grid's test, every year.

23 April 2024 · 2 min read

From 26 January 2024 the spot market buys its reserves at auction alongside energy, instead of under fixed contracts. The first weeks priced them high enough that the regulator stepped in by March.

30 January 2024 · 2 min read

Luzon went to red alert in the first weeks of May 2023 when forced outages met the dry-season peak, and parts of the grid saw rotating cuts. For a plant, the cost of an hour without power is the number that matters.

13 June 2023 · 2 min read

On 26 January 2023 the spot market began commercial operations in Mindanao, seventeen years after Luzon. A grid built on hydro and, since 2016, on coal, gained a price.

31 January 2023 · 2 min read

Department Circular DC2022-11-0034 removed the 40% foreign equity cap from solar, wind, hydro and ocean energy projects. Biomass was never inside the cap.

13 December 2022 · 2 min read

The peso reached 59 to the dollar on 17 October 2022, its weakest on record, after the central bank had raised the policy rate by 225 basis points since May. Equipment, coal and diesel are all priced in dollars.

18 October 2022 · 2 min read

In the week of 15 March pump prices rose by about 13 pesos a litre for diesel and 7 for gasoline, the largest single adjustment on record, and diesel cost more than gasoline for the first time.

22 March 2022 · 2 min read

Indonesia stopped coal exports on 1 January 2022 to refill its own power stations. The Philippines buys most of its coal there, and more than half of its electricity came from coal.

18 January 2022 · 2 min read

Climate change mitigation initiatives have become critical to sustainable development as governments worldwide strive to restrict global…

2 September 2021 · 3 min read

With resources that can generate up to 3,000 gigawatts (GW), and a “highly-liberalized” active spot market, the…

2 May 2021 · 2 min read

The Philippines’s transformation into an unlikely regional powerhouse in Renewable Energy Sources hasn’t been easy. Juan Miguel…

3 October 2016 · 3 min read

Researchers in Serbia demonstrate how a new could help Serbia and perhaps other developing nations meet their…

30 September 2016 · 3 min read

MANILA, Philippines – The World Bank has approved $67 million in financial assistance for two renewable energy…

26 September 2016 · 2 min read