• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Consumers can expect an increase in transmission charges in their monthly electric bills this month due to higher Ancillary Services (AS) rates.
This despite the decrease in transmission wheeling rates by 3.14 percent, or from P0.5422 per kilowatt-hour in January to P0.5252/kWh in the February billing period.
For the March billing of the end-consumers, the NGCP charges only 52 centavos per kWh for the delivery of its services, or what is called the transmission wheeling rates, it said in a statement March 12.
It said that bulk of transmission charges is for AS, which is remitted directly to AS providers.
AS rates for the February billing period increased by 5.05 percent, or P0.6975/kWh compared to P0.6640/kWh in January.
This includes the second tranche of the settlement of the remaining 70 percent AS cost from the Reserve Market for the March 2024 billing period, whose recovery was earlier deferred by the Energy Regulatory Commission, the NGCP said.
Ancillary Services are support services needed to stabilize and manage the grid during instances of power supply-demand imbalance, the NGCP said in a forum in Bacolod City in November. “These services are necessary to support transmission capacity and are essential in maintaining power quality, reliability, and security of the grid.”
Atty. Cynthia Perez-Alabanza, head of the NGCP Public Relations Department, had said that “if there’s a fluctuation in the bill attributed to transmission charge, in all likelihood at 99 percent, it will be the AS.”
She said the NGCP does not profit from the AS charge as this “goes straight to the (power) generators.”
But the ancillary rate is bundled with the transmission wheeling rate and reflected as transmission charge in the bill of a consumer, hence the mix-up that this also goes to the grid operator.
The NGCP does not earn from AS and did not benefit from the increase in prices, the corporation said. “The AS cost is a pass-through cost, and generating companies benefitted from this increase.” | CGC
