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Brix Lelis - The Philippine Star
February 13, 2025 | 12:00am
The facade entrance of National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) along Quezon Avenue corner BIR Road, Diliman, Quezon City taken on Novenmber 10, 2023.
PNA photo by Ben Briones
MANILA, Philippines — Customers are set to face higher electricity bills this month as a result of increased transmission charges due to higher ancillary service (AS) costs, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.
NGCP business and regulatory development head Julius Ryan Datingaling said in a press conference yesterday that the overall transmission charge went up to P1.3504 per kilowatt-hour from P1.2583 per kWh on a monthly basis.
Transmission costs refer to the fees charged to consumers for the transportation of electricity from power generation facilities to distribution systems.
“This month’s transmission charge comprised mainly of AS charges remitted directly to power generators directly providing AS services to the grid,” Datingaling said.
AS rates for the January supply period were higher by 12 percent to P0.664 per kWh from the previous month’s P0.5928 per kWh, he said.
According to Datingaling, the recent adjustment included the first tranche of the 70 percent AS transaction from the power reserve market incurred in March 2024.
This followed the Energy Regulatory Commission’s order to recover the remaining deferred reserved market payments totaling P3.05 billion.
The amount will be collected over a staggered period of three months for trading participants in Luzon and Mindanao and six months for those in the Visayas.
Also contributing to the uptick in the overall rate was the slight increase in transmission wheeling rates, or what the NGCP charges for its primary service of delivering power.
Datingaling said that the transmission wheeling rates inched up to P0.5422 per kWh from P0.5315 per kWh on a monthly basis.
“Only 54 centavos of the overall transmission rate is charged by the NGCP for the delivery of its services to consumers,” he said.
Datingaling reiterated that the grid operator does not earn from AS and did not benefit from the increase in prices.
The NGCP is responsible for the operation, maintenance and development of the state-owned power grid.
