NGCP cuts Aug transmission charge

MANILA, Philippines - The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the country’s transmission service provider, said its transmission charge for August decreased by P1.11 per kilowatt.

However, the ancillary service (AS) charge increased 42 percent last month.

According to NGCP’s latest customer bulletin, its power delivery service (PDS) charge or transmission rate for the Luzon grid, which covers the franchise areas of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), decreased by P1.11 per kilowatt.

As for the AS charge, NGCP said these are pass-through charges.

“The AS charges are pass-through charges which we bill and collect on behalf of generation companies or AS providers. It is similar to generation charges billed by distribution utilities, which are also pass-through charges,” NGCP said.

NGCP said distribution utilities bill for these services, but remit them directly and entirely to the power generators.

“The same principle applies for NGCP and ancillary charges. It is this charge which increased for the month of August,” the transmission highway operator said.

Ancillary charges form part of NGCP’s billing statement that is remitted directly and entirely to generation companies that provide the service.

Moving forward, NGCP said it is actively finding ways to ease the cost of transmission charges.

“NGCP is committed to actively find ways to ease the cost of transmission charges. NGCP’s charges were, in fact, designed and approved by the ERC to decrease over the three regulatory period which covers the years 2011 to 2015,” NGCP said.

Meralco recently announced a power rate increase for September. The increase stems from a 13-centavo per kwh increase in the generation charge and from higher prices of electricity sourced from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the country’s trading floor for electricity.

“The increase this September was mainly due to a 13-centavo per kwh increase in the generation charge, following an P 8.70 per kwh upward adjustment in the cost of electricity sourced from the WESM. WESM prices went up as a result of increases in the trading amount, coupled with higher previous month adjustments,” Meralco pointed out.