Overall power transmission rates for end consumers will be lower this October, after these fell by 1.23 percent to P1.3998/kWh, officials of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said.

NGCP Assistant Vice President and Regulatory Management head Julius Ryan Datingaling said the overall average transmission rate declined from P1.4171 per kilowatt-hour, due largely to lower ancillary services (AS) rates and transmission wheeling rate.

He explained that transmission wheeling rates are what the transmission operator charges for its core service of delivering electricity, while AS rates refer to the pass-through costs of reserve market-tapped services and the bilateral contracts that NGCP entered into to help stabilize the transmission grids.

Average AS rate for the September billing period went down by 1.70 percent to P0.6546/kWh, and transmission wheeling rate slipped by 0.84 percent to P0.5920/kWh.

The decline in NGCP’s transmission rate counters the report of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) last Monday, which attributed the jump in transmission charges, among others, to the higher power rate for October.

During the same briefing, NGCP Assistant Vice President and head of public relations department, Cynthia Alabanza, said NGCP does not gain from the AS since their collections from this fee are capped for the year.

“The only reason we translate it into a month-on-month is so that the consumers can understand why we’re charging. But in reality, we’re revenue capped,” she said. 

PNA PHOTO