Customers of Negros Electric and Power Corporation (Negros Power) will see a slight increase in their electricity bills this August as higher transmission charges and local taxes offset a decline in generation costs.
In a statement, Negros Power said the average residential electricity rate for the August 2026 billing cycle was set at P14.2787 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), up by P0.1500 per kWh from July’s rate of P14.1287 per kWh.
The increase came with the significant rise in electricity prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), where the cost climbed from P10.4213 per kWh to P12.2420 per kWh during the period.
The WESM spike was attributed by Negros Power to higher electricity demand and the temporary downtime of several key power generation facilities, which resulted in yellow and red Alerts in the Luzon and Visayas grids and pushed spot market prices higher.
Negros Power, however, implemented a cost-management measure by spreading the recovery of the higher WESM expenses over five months instead of passing the full increase on to consumers in a single billing cycle.
As a result, the generation charge billed to customers actually declined by P0.3364 per kWh in August, helping cushion households from the impact of higher wholesale electricity prices.
Despite the lower generation charge, the overall electricity rate increased because of higher transmission costs and other charges.
Transmission charges rose by P0.2593 per kWh, primarily due to increased transmission wheeling costs and ancillary service charges in the reserve market.
The August billing cycle also includes the implementation of the revised Feed-in Tariff rate of P0.3359 per kWh as well as real property and local taxes applicable for the third quarter. ||
