• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The average residential rates of the two distribution utilities serving Negros Occidental went down this billing month of July, even as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) reported higher transmission rates, mostly due to the Ancillary Services (AS) charge.
The Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (Noneco) and Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative (Noceco) reported slight decreases in their residential rates for July, at P0.0771 per kilowatt-hour and P0.0774/kWh, respectively.
Noneco said in its advisory July 21 that member-consumer-owners (MCOs) from Victorias, Manapla, Cadiz, Sagay, Escalante, San Carlos, Toboso, E.B. Magalona, and Calatrava will be paying P12.6454/kWh this month, from the P12.7225/kWh rate in June.
Noceco, on the other hand, said its residential rate this month is P11.3336/kWh, from P11.4110/kWh in June, adding this is a “welcome reduction” for its MCOs in Pulupandan, San Enrique, Valladolid, Pontevedra, La Castellana, Moises Padilla, Isabela, Hinigaran, Binalbagan, Himamaylan, Kabankalan, Ilog, Candoni, Cauayan, Sipalay, Hinoba-an, and La Carlota City.
Noneco said the decrease was due to the lower cost of power traded in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, and fluctuations in the foreign exchange rates and fuel cost of its suppliers.
Noceco, meanwhile, said the “general decrease in the cost of power from main suppliers PCPC, KSPC, and FDC, which brought down the blended generation rate to P5.7350/kWh for July, were enough to lower the overall blended rate.”
But Negros Power, which serves Bacolod and neighboring Talisay, Silay, Bago, Murcia, and Don Salvador Benedicto, earlier announced a P0.23/kWh increase in its July rate. This means that from P11.14/kWh in June, its MCOs will be paying P11.3727/kWh this month.
“This adjustment is mainly due to increase in the generation charge and transmission charge for residential consumers,” it added.
The NGCP said the higher transmission rate was mainly driven by the AS, which increased by 9.32 percent in the June 2025 billing period, or P0.6182/kWh from the P0.5655/kWh in May.
“For the June billing period, both AS and NGCP’s transmission wheeling rates increased, but the surge in AS costs accounted for most of the adjustment,” the grid operator said in a recent press release, adding that overall equivalent average transmission rates for June increased by 5.49 percent to P1.2113/kWh, from May’s P1.1482/kWh.
The NGCP said that AS rates are “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.”
It added that AS cost for Visayas for the June billing period included the sixth and last tranche of the settlement of the remaining 70 percent AS from the Reserve Market during the March 2024 billing period, whose recovery was initially deferred by the Energy Regulatory Commission, so as not to severely burden the consumers. | CGC
