Net metering requirements, and why the answer depends on who sends you the bill
Search this and the first result is Meralco's application page. It is a good page. It is also no use to a house in San Fernando, Angeles or Porac, because Meralco does not supply any of them, and the forms you actually need belong to whichever utility does.
There is no national list of documents. The programme is national, the interconnection standards are the regulator's, and the paperwork is your own utility's. So this page starts with finding out who that is, then sets out what the national rules now require of them, then says what each utility around here has actually published.
Start with the name at the top of your bill
Everything on this page hangs off one fact, and you already have it in a drawer. The company that bills you for electricity is the company your net metering application goes to, and its name is printed at the top of the statement.
It is worth saying because the province is not served by one company. Several operate across Pampanga, they publish different things, and some of them publish nothing at all.
What the national rules require, as of April 2026
These apply to every distribution utility and every cooperative, whoever yours is.
- Up to 100 kilowatts
- Net metering runs under Republic Act 9513, the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, and it is open to systems up to 100 kW. Above that you are in a different arrangement entirely.
- Ten working days at the utility
- Distribution utilities and electric cooperatives have ten working days to finish processing an application, including technical rectifications, and the period is non-extendible. It used to be twenty.
- Three working days at the local government
- Local government units have three working days to act on net metering permits. Before this there was no single period; it varied per permit.
- Nothing extra may be asked for
- The joint circular adopts a no additional requirements policy for the permits it covers, and provides that an application is deemed approved if nobody acts within the period.
The fast timetable has an expiry date on it
The ten and three working day periods came from Joint Memorandum Circular 001, series of 2026, signed by the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of Public Works and Highways. It took effect immediately and it stays in force for the duration of the State of National Energy Emergency declared under Executive Order 110, series of 2026, unless the Department of Energy revokes it sooner.
It is emergency legislation, not a settled rule, and it replaced a twenty working day period. Both halves of that matter if you are reading anything written before April 2026.
Reported by BusinessMirror, "DOE fast tracks net metering applications", 2 April 2026.
The single line diagram, and which side of it you own
Search for a net metering diagram and you get the same five parts in the same order, drawn a dozen different ways. The parts are the easy half. The line that matters runs through the meter, because everything above it is yours to buy, install and keep working, and everything below it belongs to the company whose name is at the top of your bill.
That boundary is what the ten working days are spent on. The application is a question about one joint.
Yours
-
Roof array
The panels. Direct current, and nothing in the house runs on that yet.
-
Inverter
Turns that into the alternating current the house actually uses. This is the box the interconnection standards have the most to say about.
-
Your main board
Where the house takes what it needs. Whatever the panels are making goes here first, and only what is left over gets as far as the meter.
The boundary
A meter that counts both ways
An ordinary meter counts what arrives. Net metering needs one that also counts what leaves, which is where the word net comes from.
- Going out
- The surplus, on a bright afternoon with the house half empty. This is the half people picture when they hear net metering.
- Coming in
- Everything the house wants that the panels are not making at that moment. At night that is all of it.
Theirs
Distribution line
The utility's network, and the reason any of this needs permission. Your inverter is being allowed to push power into equipment somebody else is responsible for.
What the utilities around here actually publish
Opened one by one on 23 September 2026. This is what is on their own websites, linked so you can check rather than take our word for it, and it is not much.
- Where it says it operates
- Its own About page says it has served San Fernando, Pampanga since 1927, and its service advisories are headed "San Fernando and Floridablanca".
- What it publishes on net metering
- Net metering appears on the front page under community programmes. There is no page setting out what to submit, and its notices to net metering applicants have gone out on its Facebook page.
- Where it says it operates
- Its website states no franchise area. Not on the profile page, not anywhere. The company is named for the city and its office is in it, and that is as far as its own site goes.
- What it publishes on net metering
- It has a page headed "AEC Net Metering Program". The page is empty. A title, the standard advisories, and nothing about net metering at all.
- Where it says it operates
- Its own history page names the towns it took in the 1979 split: Bacolor, Guagua, Sasmuan, Santa Rita, Porac and Mabalacat City. It now runs twelve area offices, so the list has grown rather than shrunk.
- What it publishes on net metering
- Nothing found on net metering.
- Where it says it operates
- Its own front page names six towns: Apalit, Macabebe, Masantol, San Simon, Minalin and Santo Tomas. None of them is a town this site works in.
- What it publishes on net metering
- Nothing found on net metering.
Towns this page does not pin to a utility: Angeles City and Lubao. Angeles Electric publishes no franchise area, and Lubao appears on none of the three cooperatives' published lists. We could guess at both and we would probably be right, which is not the same as knowing. Read your bill, or send it to us and we will work it out with you.
What is still moving
The Energy Regulatory Commission has a draft amendment to the net metering interconnection standards in circulation. A draft is not a rule, and until it is adopted the existing standards govern. The ten day timetable above expires with the emergency that created it.
Separately, the paperwork for solar that exports nothing got lighter in August 2026, which is a different route with a different set of forms and is worth understanding before you commit to this one.
What people ask about net metering requirements
What are the requirements for net metering in the Philippines?
There is no single national list, and that is the honest answer. Net metering runs under Republic Act 9513 for systems up to 100 kW, the Energy Regulatory Commission sets the interconnection standards, and the forms and documents themselves come from your own distribution utility. What Meralco asks for is what Meralco asks for.
So the first step is not a form. It is finding out who your distribution utility is, which is printed on your own bill.
Who is my distribution utility in Pampanga?
Read the name at the top of your electricity bill. It is the one certain answer and it takes a second.
Several utilities operate across the province, and not all of them publish which towns they cover. Angeles Electric Corporation does not state a franchise area anywhere on its website. PELCO II and PELCO III both name towns on their own pages. SFELAPCO says it serves San Fernando. Where a town cannot be pinned from a utility’s own site, this page does not guess.
Is it true applications now take ten days?
Ten working days at the distribution utility and three at the local government, and it is worth knowing why. It came from a joint circular of the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of Public Works and Highways, Joint Memorandum Circular 001 series of 2026, reported on 2 April 2026.
It is also temporary. It took effect immediately and stays in force for the duration of the State of National Energy Emergency declared under Executive Order 110 series of 2026, unless the Department of Energy revokes it sooner. Anybody telling you ten days is simply the rule now has left that part out.
Why does my utility have nothing about net metering on its website?
Several of them do not. Angeles Electric has a page headed AEC Net Metering Program with no content on it. SFELAPCO mentions net metering on its front page and puts its actual notices to applicants on Facebook. PELCO II and PELCO III publish nothing on it at all.
That is not a reason to think the programme is closed to you. It is a national programme and the utility has to run it. It does mean the first step is asking the utility directly rather than downloading a form.
Do I need net metering at all?
Only if you want the electricity you do not use to leave your property and come back as a credit. A system that keeps everything on your own side of the meter is a different arrangement with lighter paperwork, and since August 2026 considerably lighter.
That fork decides most of what you have to file, and it is worth settling before anybody fills in a form.
What is still changing?
The Energy Regulatory Commission has a draft amendment to the net metering interconnection standards out, and a draft is not a rule. The ten day timetable expires with the energy emergency that created it.
Anything written about Philippine net metering before April 2026 describes a twenty day process, and most of what a search turns up was.
Tell us who bills you and we will tell you what they will ask for
The utility on your statement decides the forms, and we have been through it with several of them. Your town and the name at the top of the bill is enough to start.
Tell us the property and what you are trying to cut, and you will get a written answer with a size and a next step. No visit is booked and nothing is charged for asking.
Sources are linked beside each utility. The national rules are Republic Act 9513, the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, and Joint Memorandum Circular 001, series of 2026, as reported by BusinessMirror on 2 April 2026. This is a plain reading of what is published and it is not legal advice. Check the current position with your own distribution utility before you rely on it, or send us the details or use the Message us button and ask us.