Transmission charge up 11.5% in March electricity bill
Transmission charges for March, which will appear in this month’s electric bills, have increased by 11.5 percent due to higher ancillary service costs, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
In a briefing on Tuesday, the grid operator said overall transmission charges had jumped to P1.5240 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from P1.3668 per kWh in February.
It said the more expensive transmission rates could be pinned on higher ancillary service charges, or the cost of electricity sourced from the reserve market and providers with bilateral contracts with the NGCP when supplies are thin.
Utilizing ancillary services is necessary to ensure uninterrupted electricity delivery.
The NGCP said ancillary services in the covered billing period had climbed by 16 percent to P0.8094 per kWh from P0.6975 per kWh in February.
The cost includes the third tranche of the collection of 70 percent of the ancillary service charge that was not billed by generators from early last year.
The Energy Regulatory Commission earlier gave its go-signal for power generators to recover a total of P3.05 billion—the remaining 70-percent reserve trading amount. It earlier suspended the collection following the spike in power prices.
Transmission wheeling rates, or what the NGCP charges to consumers for delivering power, increased by 4.81 percent from P0.5252 per kWh.
