ACEN wants retail power to reach households soon

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April 10, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The top executive of ACEN Corp. is hoping that households may finally wield the power to source renewable energy (RE) for their electricity supply before President Marcos ends his term.

ACEN president and CEO Eric Francia is pushing for a further reduction of the threshold under the green energy option program (GEOP), enabling even low-income families to directly contract RE to power their homes.

“I’m really hopeful that this administration’s leadership will be the one responsible for so-called democratizing renewables and making renewables available to the households,” Francia said in an interview.

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently lowered the GEOP threshold, allowing end-users with an average monthly peak demand of at least 50 kiloWatts (kW) to directly negotiate their RE supply.

Previously, this option was limited to consumers with an average peak demand of 100 kW or more.

Multiple end-users in a connected area may now also aggregate their demand to meet the minimum eligibility threshold.

While describing it as “a step in the right direction,” Francia noted that the current threshold remains far from reaching the household level.

“If you want renewables to be taken advantage of by households, especially the lower-income households, it’s best to just open the GEOP to all households,” the ACEN executive said.

To meet the 50-kW threshold under GEOP, approximately 180 households consuming 200 kWh per month would need to pool their demand.

This arrangement could seem overly complex for the households themselves, as well as for the retail power providers, utilities and the system operator.

“Aggregation is still a very difficult thing to pull off. It’s very cumbersome. You have to add and collect monthly bills, add them all up and then show that you reach the threshold,” Francia said.

Still, he believes the DOE’s lowering of the GEOP threshold represents a “golden opportunity” for the country to finally realize the promise of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act. Enacted in 2001, EPIRA aims to “ensure the quality, reliability, security and affordability” of power supply in the Philippines.

Last year, sourcing electricity from the retail market proved more cost-efficient for consumers than relying on distribution utilities.

Power rates in the retail market remained within P5.30 to P5.70 per kilowatt-hour, lower than the P5.55 to P5.95 per kWh charged by distribution utilities, according to Philippine Electricity Market Corp.