THE NATIONAL Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) announced a likely increase in the April electricity bill due to the transmission charge.
The consumers will expect a spike in billing as the increase of the transmission charges follows the spike in Ancillary services charges, NGCP said in a statement.
For the April 2025, NGCP charges 55 centavos per kWh for the delivery of its services, and the bulk of transmission charges is for AS, which is remitted directly to AS providers.
The charges for Ancillary Services (AS) for the March 2025 Billing Period increased by 16.05% at PhP0.8094/kWh, compared to PhP0.6975/kWh for the February 2025 Billing Period.
This cost includes the third tranche of the settlement of the remaining 70% AS cost from the Reserve Market for the March 2024 Billing Period whose recovery was deferred by the ERC.
AS services is the cost of AS sourced from the Reserve Market and those for AS providers with bilateral contracts with NGCP.
“As a pass-through cost, only generating companies benefit from the increased AS rates,” NGCP added.
During power supply-demand imbalance, AS serves as support services provided by power generators to balance and stabilize the grid.
Transmission wheeling rates, on the other hand, which is what NGCP charges for its primary service of delivering power, slightly increased by 4.81%, from P0.5252/kWh in February to P0.5505/kWh in the March 2025 billing period.
Overall transmission charges for the March 2025 billing period is at P1.5240/kWh, up by 11.51% compared from February’s P1.3668/kWh.
