Electricity consumers nationwide are set to feel added pressure on their August bills as transmission charges collected through the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) jumped sharply in the July billing period.
NGCP said the overall transmission rate climbed 22.22 percent to P1.7560 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in July from P1.4367 per kWh in June. The higher transmission cost will be passed on by distribution utilities and electric cooperatives to consumers in their August 2026 billing statements.
The increase means that even households whose electricity consumption remains unchanged could see upward pressure on their total bill because of the higher cost of moving power through the national grid.
At the center of the increase was a steep rise in ancillary services charges, which surged 30.85 percent to P1.0391 per kWh from P0.7941 per kWh a month earlier.
Ancillary services are reserve power supplies used to help stabilize the electricity grid whenever there is an imbalance between available supply and demand. These services are supplied by power generators through contracts with NGCP or through the Reserve Market.
NGCP stressed that it does not earn from ancillary services charges, describing them as pass-through costs that are ultimately paid to the companies providing reserve power.
“As system operator, NGCP’s responsibility is to ensure grid stability and reliability, especially during periods of supply-demand imbalance,” the grid operator said.
It added that payments for ancillary services are remitted either to generation companies contracted to provide reserves or to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines for reserves obtained through the market.
Aside from the surge in ancillary services costs, NGCP’s transmission wheeling rate also moved higher, rising to P0.5436 per kWh in July from P0.5044 per kWh in June.
The wheeling charge covers the cost of transporting electricity through NGCP’s high-voltage transmission network before the power reaches the distribution systems of utilities such as Meralco and electric cooperatives.
For consumers, transmission is only one component of the monthly electricity bill, alongside generation, distribution, taxes and other regulated charges. But the latest NGCP figures indicate that transmission will be a significant source of upward pressure on power bills this month.
In Meralco’s service area, for example, the transmission charge represents the cost of delivering electricity from generating plants—many of them located outside Metro Manila and neighboring provinces—to Meralco’s distribution network.
With NGCP’s transmission rate rising by more than a fifth in just one billing period, households and businesses should expect the increase to show up directly in the transmission component of their August electricity statements.