Transmission rates to drop in December bills

MANILA, Philippines —  The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) reported a decline in its overall transmission rates for power bills this month, driven largely by lower ancillary service charges.

In a press briefing yesterday, NGCP revenue management head Julius Ryan Datingaling said the overall transmission rate fell by 10.3 percent to P1.3547 per kilowatt-hour in November from the previous month’s P1.5105 per kWh.

Datingaling attributed the downward adjustment to higher electricity consumption of on-grid consumers nationwide.

“Any movement on a per kWh basis is driven by consumption because it’s what we charge divided by the total kWh consumption,” he noted.

The latest rate adjustment, which will be reflected in consumers’ electricity bills in December, follows reductions in both transmission the wheeling rates and ancillary service components.

According to Datingaling, the wheeling rates, or what the NGCP charges for its primary service of delivering power, marginally decreased to P0.5894 per kWh from P0.5953 per kWh on a monthly basis.

Ancillary service rates, meanwhile, dropped by 17.57 percent to P0.6217 per kWh from P0.7542 per kWh.

Ancillary service charges cover the cost of backup power purchased by the NGCP to support grid reliability. The NGCP does not earn from ancillary service costs, as such charges are directly remitted to generation companies providing power reserves to the grid.

NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza emphasized that fluctuations in overall transmission rates should not be interpreted as changes in NGCP’s pricing for its services.

“Over the last year, we’ve seen a significant increase in ancillary services prices, which is a pass-through cost and does not go to NGCP. This is just so people understand that if there is any price increase, it is not solely because of NGCP,” Alabanza said.

Transmission charges form part of electricity bills and are billed separately from generation and distribution costs.