NGCP: Expect lower electric bills

By Ed Paolo Salting – October 12, 2024
from The Manila Times

ELECTRICITY consumers can expect lower power bills this month as the National Grid Corp.of the Philippines (NGCP) announced a decrease in ancillary services and overall transmission charges for the period.

The NGCP, which controls the country’s power supply and demand, said that in September, transmission wheeling rates, or the charges for delivering power, slightly increased to P4.936 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from the P4.761 kWh in August.

However, ancillary services (AS) rates decreased to P0.5680 kWh from P0.6127 kWh, attributed to the reserves market.

“Of the overall transmission charge, only 49 centavos is charged by NGCP for the delivery of its services to power consumers. This month’s transmission charge consists mainly of AS charges remitted directly to power generators providing ancillary services to the grid,” Ryan Datinggaling, NGCP head of revenue management, said.

He pointed out that transmission charges nationwide had an average decrease of P0.03 per kWh, which will be reflected in consumers’ October electricity bills, though not necessarily in all regions.

To illustrate, transmission charges in Luzon decreased by P0.09 kWh, while those in the Visayas increased by P0.29 kWh and Mindanao had a decrease of P0.02 kWh.

The NGCP clarified it does not earn from AS, nor does it benefit from price increases. AS are support services which are needed to stabilize the grid during power supply demand imbalances.