Higher Ancillary Service (AS) charges led to an increase in transmission charges in consumers’ April 2025 electric bill, according to NGCP.
AS charges for the March 2025 Billing Period increased by 16.05% at PhP0.8094/kWh, compared to PhP0.6975/kWh for the February 2025 Billing Period. This cost includes the 3rd tranche of the settlement of the remaining 70% AS cost from the Reserve Market for the March 2024 Billing Period whose recovery was deferred by the ERC.
Ancillary Services charges pertain to the cost for AS sourced from the Reserve Market and those for AS providers with bilateral contracts with NGCP. As a pass-through cost, only generating companies benefit from the increased AS rates.
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%, from PhP0.5252/kWh in February to PhP0.5505/kWh in the March 2025 Billing Period.
Overall transmission charges for the March 2025 Billing Period is at PhP1.5240/kWh, up by 11.51% from February’s PhP1.3668/kWh.
