The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said its wheeling rates for March which are due for billing to customers this April have increased by 4.81 percent.
NGCP Head of Revenue Management Department Julius Ryan Datinggaling said transmission wheeling rates, or what the company charges for its primary service of delivering power, rose to 55.05 centavos per kWh in March 2025 from 52.52 centavos per kWh in February.
In a briefing on Tuesday, Datinggaling said Ancillary Service (AS) rates, which form part of the wheeling rates for March, increased by 16.05 percent to 80.94 centavos per kWh from 69.75 centavos per kWh in February.
AS is the available generating capacity for dispatch to meet contingency reserve requirements when a power-generating unit trips or a transmission interconnection problem occurs. The AS cost is a pass-through cost paid to generating companies.
The wheeling rates and AS charges accounted for the upward adjustment of Meralco’s overall electricity rate for April billing, the NGCP said.
NGCP said that in compliance with directives from the Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission, it sources 50 percent of its AS requirement from firm agreements and 50 percent from the AS Reserves Market.
Overall transmission charges for the March 2025 billing period were P1.5240 per kWh, an 11.51 percent increase from February’s P1.3668 per kWh.
Any adjustment to wheeling rates and AS charges influence the overall power rates of power distribution utilities and electric cooperatives nationwide.
However, the NGCP said they are not the sole drivers of monthly power rate movements; generation charges, among others, must also be priced in.
