Even before the current crisis of extraordinarily high electricity bills and rotating blackouts, residents of Catanduanes Province paid among the highest rates for electricity in Southeast Asia.
This was due to no fault of FICELCO, which maintains the province’s distribution network, but of SUWECO and the National Power Corporation, which own the generators and provide the fuel.
Last summer, residential consumers in Virac were being billed as much as ₱14.52 per kilowatt-hour, and the figure today is still going up, not down, because of the U.S.-Iran conflict.
Indeed, the electricity bills for some residential consumers in the province doubled last month.
Point of clarification: Brownouts are a drop in voltage, so power is still on but weaker; blackouts are a complete loss of electricity, which Catanduanes now experiences almost daily.
To grasp just how high the price of power was before the current series of irregular blackouts, consider the global context using U.S. dollars for the purposes of standardization.
Catanduanes Province
The household electricity price in the province reached ₱14.68 per kWh in April 2026. The rate was ₱13.03 in April 2025, so it had increased by 13 percent in one year. At current exchange rates in U.S. dollars, ₱14.68 works out to roughly $0.24/kWh — or 24 U.S. cents.
Thailand
Thailand’s National Energy Policy Council capped the residential electricity tariff for the September–December 2025 period at 3.99 baht per unit. That converts to approximately $0.12/kWh, or 12 cents — a modest dip from the $0.14 figure for 2024, and consistent with a year-over-year household price decrease of 4.8 percent as of August 2025.
Indonesia
As of November 2024 — the most recent ASEAN-wide tariff comparison available — Indonesia’s residential rate stood at $0.09/kWh. No significant rate adjustment has been reported for 2025, so the figure remains near $0.09/kWh, or 9 cents.
Malaysia
The same ASEAN tariff data puts Malaysia’s residential rate at $0.116/kWh — about 12 cents. The figure reflects the Tenaga Nasional Berhad tariff structure in effect since April 2018, with subsidies factored in differently depending on the consumer’s consumption tier.
These are not minor gaps: Catanduanes consumers pay significantly more per unit of power than their counterparts in neighboring countries.
The U.S. and E.U.
There are around 3,000 electric utility companies in the United States that provide electricity to homes and businesses, so prices vary.
The average residential electricity rate in the United States stands at around 14.5 cents per kWh — meaning Americans, despite far higher wages, pay less per kilowatt-hour than Filipinos.
Prices in Europe vary across nations, but generally speaking, EU household electricity prices averaged approximately $0.23 to $0.35 per kWh in the second half of 2025 — roughly equivalent to the Philippine national average, but this is in economies where salaries are muchmuch higher and the supply of power is far more reliable.
Why So Expensive?
The reasons for high rates are structural, not accidental. For one thing, the Philippines does not subsidize electricity, as do some other nations.
In fact, government subsidies in other Southeast Asian countries cover from 36 to 66 percent of electricity costs. For example, Malaysia’s low rate of $0.03/kWh is a direct result of heavy government support. Thailand and Indonesia also heavily subsidize fuel inputs for generation of electricity.
The Philippines relies heavily on fossil fuels for over 73 percent of total electricity generation — most of it imported. When global fuel prices spike or the peso weakens, the cost is automatically passed along on consumers’ bills. There is no buffer, no subsidy to absorb the shock.
For Catanduanes, the problem is compounded by its geography. The island is isolated from the main Luzon grid, with power sourced mainly from aging diesel generating sets and small hydroelectric facilities that run out of water during dry months.
But diesel generation is among the most expensive forms of electricity production. When FICELCO’s existing supply contracts recently proved insufficient to meet rising demand, the cooperative was forced into an Emergency Power Supply Agreement at a true cost generation rate of ₱22.95/kWh — much higher than the already-high standard rate. That emergency cost is now being passed along directly to consumers, but the cost is being spread over two billing cycles.
So, the provincial situation is in a continual state of flux.
FICELCO operates as a natural monopoly with no direct competition in the province, which, while regulated by the Energy Regulatory Commission, limits the market pressures that might otherwise discipline pricing.
Is There a Way Forward?
The good news is that solutions exist — and some are already in motion. Broadly speaking, spot power prices in the Philippines reached a post-pandemic low in the first half of 2025 as more cost-effective renewable generators — solar and wind — displaced higher-cost plants. Planned additions to green energy capacity nationwide are expected to cut prices further by 2029.
The Department of Energy projects that power bills could drop by ₱2 to ₱3 per kWh by 2030 if some 200 proposed conventional and renewable energy projects are completed on schedule.
For Catanduanes specifically, solar energy represents the most obvious, viable path. The island receives abundant sunlight, rooftop solar systems have no fuel costs, and at current rates, solar installations typically achieve payback within 3.5 to 4.5 years, after which households generate effectively free electricity for decades. Community-scale solar or small wind installations, if supported by local government and the DOE, could dramatically reduce the island’s dependence on costly diesel generation.
A deeper fix, however, requires what the Philippines has long put off: a national commitment to subsidize essential energy for its most vulnerable and isolated communities, as its neighbors have done for decades.
Until that political will materializes, the Philippines joins India and several African nations in being unable to provide consistent power to its citizens. Meanwhile, Catanduanes consumers will continue paying a premium for a substandard and unreliable service that, in most of the world, is taken for granted.