Consumers can expect lower transmission rates this month, following a significant reduction in both transmission wheeling rates and ancillary services (AS) rates for the April 2025 billing period, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said.
Overall equivalent average transmission rates for the April 2025 billing period dropped by 28.45 percent to P1.0904 per kilowatt-hour, from March’s P1.5240/kWh.
The decrease was driven by reductions in both transmission wheeling and AS rates, the NGCP said May 14, adding that transmission wheeling rates are what it charges for its primary service of delivering power, while AS rates pertain to the pass-through costs for power supplied by AS providers to stabilize the grid during power supply-demand imbalance.
AS charges are remitted directly to generating companies with bilateral contracts with NGCP, and to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines for the AS sourced from the Reserve Market. “The NGCP does not earn from AS and does not benefit from the movement in prices.”
It also said that transmission wheeling rates went down by 16.35 percent, from P0.5505/kWh in the March 2025 billing period, to P0.4605/kWh in the April 2025 billing period.
“For the May 2025 electric bill of the end consumers, NGCP charges only 46 centavos per kWh for the delivery of its services,” the grid operator explained, adding that AS still accounts for the bulk of transmission charges.
Average AS rates for the April 2025 billing period decreased by 36.07 percent to P0.5175/kWh, compared to P0.8094/kWh in the March 2025 billing period.
The AS cost for Visayas for the April 2025 billing period includes the 4th tranche of the settlement of the remaining 70 percent AS from the Reserve Market during the March 2024 billing period, whose recovery was earlier deferred by the Energy Regulatory Commission. ||
