Higher Ancillary Service (AS) charges led to an increase in transmission charges in the consumers’ April electric bill, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said April 20.
AS charges for the March 2025 billing period increased by 16.05 percent, at P0.8094 per kilowatt-hour, compared to P0.6975/kWh for the February billing period.
This cost includes the third tranche of the settlement of the remaining 70 percent AS cost from the Reserve Market for the March 2024 billing period, after its recovery was deferred by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
AS charges pertain to the cost for AS sourced from the Reserve Market and those for AS providers with bilateral contracts with the NGCP. As a pass-through cost, only generating companies benefit from the increased AS rates, the grid operator said in a press release.
AS are support services provided by power generators to balance and stabilize the grid during power supply-demand imbalance.
“For the April 2025 bills of end consumers, NGCP charges only 55 centavos per kWh for the delivery of its services. The bulk of transmission charges is for AS, which is remitted directly to AS providers,” the company explained.
Transmission wheeling rates, or what NGCP charges for its primary service of delivering power, slightly increased by 4.81 percent, from P0.5252/kWh in February to P0.5505/kWh in the March billing period.
Overall transmission charges for the March 2025 billing period stood at P1.5240/kWh, up by 11.51 percent from February’s P1.3668/kWh, the NGCP added. ||
