There is no single Philippine electricity rate. What you pay depends on which distribution utility serves your address, and the spread between the cheapest and dearest major utility is more than four pesos per kilowatt-hour. Every appliance figure on this site scales directly with that number.
Among the major utilities, Davao Light is cheapest at about ₱10.35 per kWh, and Meralco is dearest at ₱14.7833. Mindanao runs roughly two to three pesos below Luzon because its generation mix leans on hydro and geothermal rather than imported coal and gas.
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Planning estimate. The rate box is prefilled with a regional average; the figure on your own bill is the one that matters. Power is draw while running, not while switched on.
Rates by distribution utility
| Utility | Residential rate | As of | Service area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meralco | ₱14.78 | August 2026 | Metro Manila and much of Luzon |
| VECO | ₱13.74 | June 2026 | Cebu City, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, Talisay, Liloan, Consolacion and Compostela |
| Davao Light | ₱10.35 | May 2026 | Davao City and parts of Davao del Norte and Davao de Oro |
| CEBECO | ₱13.37 | February 2026 | Cebu province outside the VECO franchise |
| NORDECO | ₱14.81 | January 2026 | parts of Davao del Norte and Davao de Oro |
Each figure is the all-in residential rate announced by that utility for the billing cycle stated, taken from official advisories and primary news reports. Rates move monthly, so treat these as the last confirmed observation rather than today number, and check your own bill for the figure that applies to you.
Why the spread is so wide
Generation is 55 to 64 percent of a Philippine electricity bill and it is a pass-through cost. Utilities buy power and resell it without markup, so the difference between utilities is mostly the difference between their supply portfolios.
Mindanao utilities draw on Agus and Pulangi hydro and on geothermal, whose costs are domestic and stable. Luzon leans on imported coal and liquefied gas priced in dollars, so every peso of currency weakness lands on the bill about a month later. The Visayas sits in between and suffers from thin reserves, which forces expensive spot-market buying whenever a plant trips.
What this means for solar
Solar payback tracks your grid rate almost linearly. The same array in Davao offsets electricity worth ₱10.35 per kWh; in Meralco territory it offsets ₱14.7833. That is why payback periods quoted nationally are close to meaningless, and why the Meralco franchise sees the fastest returns despite Mindanao having marginally better sun.
Export credits differ too. Net metering pays near the blended generation rate rather than retail, which is roughly ₱6.50 in Meralco territory and closer to ₱4.50 to ₱5.50 in the Visayas and Mindanao. Self-consumption is worth more than export everywhere, but the gap is widest where retail rates are highest.