THE National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) reported Wednesday a slight reduction in overall transmission rates which are reflected in the October bills of end-consumers.
On Wednesday, the grid operator said overall transmission rates stood at P1.3998 per kilowatt hour (kWh), down by 1.23 percent from P1.417 per kWh.
NGCP Assistant Vice President and Regulatory Management Head Julius Ryan Datingaling said during a news briefing that the lower transmission rates were brought about by the reduction in ancillary service (AS) and transmission wheeling rates.
AS and transmission wheeling rates are components of transmission rates. Transmission wheeling rates refer to what the NGCP charges for its core service of delivering electricity, while AS rates cover the pass-through costs of services sourced from the Reserve Market and from providers with bilateral contracts with NGCP to stabilize the grid during power supply-demand imbalances.
NGCP does not earn from AS rates, as these are remitted directly to generating companies, and it does not benefit from any movement in their prices.
NGCP’s transmission wheeling rates went down by 0.84 percent, from P0.5970/kWh in the August 2025 billing period to P0.5920 per kWh in the September 2025 billing period.
‘For the October 2025 electric bill of the end consumers, NGCP charges only 59 centavos per kWh for the delivery of its services,’ NGCP said, adding that AS still accounts for the bulk of transmission charges.
Average AS rates for the September 2025 billing period decreased by 1.7 percent to P0.6546/kWh, compared to P0.6659/kWh in the August 2025 billing period.
Transmission rates are one of the components of an electricity bill. For this month, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) reported that transmission, taxes, and other charges registered a total increase of P0.0428 per kWh.
‘We don’t know how the amount is being translated by the distribution utilities to their consumers. We don’t know the bill determinant to translate that amount into their rates for their consumers,’ said Datingaling.
NGCP spokesperson Atty. Cynthia Alabanza maintained that their rates have gone down and that it is up to Meralco to explain this to its customers.
‘How the distribution utilities compute what we charge them is really up to them. We have no idea if it was different from last month or the same from last month. But what we do know is what we charge them really went down,’ said Alabanza.