Does power still drive growth?
Electricity–GDP elasticity asks how fast power demand grows for each point of economic growth. In the industrialising 1990s the economy was electricity-hungry — elasticity above 2. As growth shifted to services, it fell toward 1: the economy now wrings more output from each kilowatt-hour. Shown as a 5-year rolling ratio to smooth annual swings.
Intensity rose through the electrifying 1990s–2000s, then eased as services grew — more GDP per kilowatt-hour.
How hard the fleet actually works
Capacity factor is real generation against what the installed fleet could produce running flat out. It climbed from under 40% in the late 1980s to about 50% — better utilisation — before dipping when demand fell in 2020. Even at its best, roughly half the nameplate sits idle on average: the cost of reserves, peaking plants and an uneven demand curve.
Capacity more than quadrupled since 1985. When it outpaces demand, utilisation — and capacity factor — falls.
Where the power leaks
Two leaks sit between the generator and the meter. System loss — power lost in transmission and distribution — has roughly halved since the 1980s. But own use — electricity the plants consume to run themselves — has climbed, tracking the shift to coal, whose auxiliaries are hungry. Gains in the wires were partly eaten at the plant.
Rising own use is a fingerprint of the fuel mix. The fuel mix behind it can be followed in the Energy Flows explorer; the source-coded ownership structure is in Who Owns Philippine Power; and the public corporations left holding sector debt are in The Public Ledger.
Demand, built up by sector
Total consumption by end use, in gigawatt-hours — including the two leaks. The full series is below; filter by year to read any point.
Download the complete supplied performance series. Includes generation, capacity, elasticity, losses, delivered share and end-use consumption.
| Year ▲▼ | Gen (GWh) ▲▼ | Cap (MW) ▲▼ | Cap. factor ▲▼ | Elec-GDP elas. ▲▼ | Sys. loss ▲▼ | Own use ▲▼ | Delivered ▲▼ |
|---|