National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) announced that transmission charges have gone up in March.

In a briefing on Wednesday, March 12, Julius Datingaling, head of revenue management department of NGCP, reported that transmission wheeling rates (TWR) dropped by 3.14 percent from ₱0.5422 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to ₱0.5252/kWh in February. The TWR are charges for power delivery services.

Ancillary services (AS) rates, on the other hand, climbed to ₱0.6975/kWh in February, which is a 5.05 percent increase from ₱0.6640/kWh in January. According to Datingaling, the cost includes the second tranche of the remaining 70 percent AS costs from the reserve market for the March 2024 period, which was deferred by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

“[These are] support services needed to stabilize and manage the grid during instances of power supply-demand imbalance,” he said.

Consumers will then see a ₱0.52/kWh charge from NGCP in their March billing, while the bulk of transmission charges is for AS that is remitted to providers. NGCP reiterated that it does not earn from AS and would not benefit from the increasing rates, as it is a pass-through cost.

NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza, shared that the grid corporation has been coordinating with the Department of Energy (DOE) to prepare for the hot season; however, the summer forecast is yet to be disclosed.

“We are still working with the industry players and generators to ensure the supply-demand would be stable during the summer,” she said.

Erwil Bugaoisan, NGCP’s head of systems operations, referenced the DOE’s forecast, which indicates that Luzon will have the highest power demand this year, with an outlook of 14,769 megawatts (MW), compared to Visayas and Mindanao.

In Visayas, demand is expected to peak at 3,111 MW, while Mindanao’s demand is projected to reach 2,789 MW.

“Historically, the peak demand increase usually plays around five to six percent, but the forecast for yellow and red alerts are based on the percentage of probability… We want to level down the yellow alerts,” Bugaoisan said.

According to NGCP, yellow alerts are issued when the operating margin is not enough to meet the generation’s contingency requirement, while red alert is a signal for insufficient power supply, causing an imbalance between consumer demand and the grid’s contingency requirement.

On March 5, NGCP issued the first yellow alert of the year due to a spike in power demand caused by hot weather. The increased demand was compounded by the unavailability of GNPower Dinginin (GNPD) 1 and reduced output from 16 other critical power plants. The status was eventually lifted through NGCP’s rapid assessment of grid stability, optimization of remaining available power, and real-time plant monitoring and coordination.