The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has lowered its overall average transmission rates for the April 2025 billing by P0.4336 per kilowatthour (kWh).
The rate cut amounted to 28.45 percent, bringing down April’s average transmission rate to P1.0904 per kWh from March’s P1.5240 per kWh.
In a briefing on Wednesday in San Juan City, NGCP attributed the overall decrease to reductions in both transmission wheeling rates and Ancillary Services (AS) rates.
The company said transmission wheeling rates for the April billing period that will be billed to customers this May have dropped by 16.35 percent.
Julius Ryan Datinggaling, NGCP head of Revenue Management Department, said transmission wheeling rates, or what the company charges for its primary service of delivering power, eased to P0.4605 per kWh in April 2025 from P0.5505 per kWh in March 2025.
Meanwhile, the AS rates, which form part of the wheeling price, for the April billing period, fell by 36.07 percent to P0.5175 per kWh from P0.8094 per kWh in March.
The AS cost is a pass-through cost paid to generating companies which have bilateral contracts with NGCP and the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines for the AS sourced from the reserve market.
The AS item serves as the available generating capacity for dispatch to meet contingency reserve requirements when a power generating unit trips or a transmission interconnection problem occurs.
NGCP said that these reductions are factors which may pull down a portion of power rates charged by distribution utilities and electric cooperatives nationwide.
For consumers of Meralco, this month’s transmission charges resulted in a P0.2970 per kWh decrease in their power bills.
NGCP said it is still awaiting further instructions from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on how it can implement the recent ruling on its collectibles for the fourth regulatory period covering the years 2016 to 2022.
In March, ERC approved NGCP’s maximum allowable revenue for the period at P335.78 billion, using the “as spent” approach and adopting a weighted average cost of capital of 11.33 percent.
As part of this ruling, ERC also allowed NGCP to recover an additional P28.29 billion in “under-recoveries,” leading to an increase in transmission charges, for a seven-year recovery period.
In effect, that amount will translate to an additional P0.1013 per kWh in transmission charges to be collected over the next 84 months from issuance of the ERC decision.
During the same briefing, NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza told reporters they have yet to receive the official copy of the ERC decision.
“So, without having seen that, we cannot say what will be our implementation strategy or the implementation schedule, or if that would even be included in the final determination. So, we are on a wait and see for now until we receive that,” Alabanza said.
She was optimistic that they could soon claim the collectibles from the ERC decision, saying it was important for the business cycle to pursue other transmission upgrade projects needed by the country.
