Filipino households continue to contend with higher food prices, transportation costs, and other daily expenses. But there is at least one modest source of relief this June: lower electric bill.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), which operates the country’s power transmission network, announced that transmission rates for the May 2026 billing period โ reflected in many consumers’ June electricity bills โ fell by 9.33 percent compared with the previous month.
The change allocates a slightly smaller share of consumersโ monthly electricity bills to moving electricity across the countryโs highโvoltage transmission system.
What Exactly Is Going Down?
NGCP said the overall transmission rate declined to โฑ1.4492 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), down from โฑ1.5983 per kWh in April. The reduction came from decreases in two major components:
- Transmission wheeling charges, which pay for the use and maintenance of the grid that carries electricity from power plants to distribution utilities.
- Ancillary services charges, which cover reserve power and other grid-balancing services used to maintain system reliability when supply and demand fluctuate.
Transmission wheeling rates fell nearly 7 percent, while ancillary services charges dropped more than 10 percent.
Will Consumers Notice the Difference?
The impact on individual households will likely be modest but measurable. Transmission charges are only one component of an electric bill. Consumers also pay for generation, distribution, taxes, subsidies, and other charges.
Reducing these charges offsets some of the upward pressure from other electricity cost components, because utilities pass transmission costs through to customers.
The savings may amount to only a few dozen pesos for a household consuming several hundred kilowatt-hours a month. But in a period of persistent inflation, even small reductions can provide welcome relief.
Why Did Ancillary Service Costs Fall?
Ancillary services are often less familiar to consumers than generation or distribution charges, yet they play a critical role in keeping the lights on. These services act as a backup system for the power grid, providing reserve capacity that can be tapped when power plants unexpectedly go offline or when electricity demand suddenly spikes.
NGCP purchases these services through bilateral contracts and from the Reserve Market. Lower ancillary service costs during the billing period helped pull overall transmission charges downward.
How Much Does NGCP Actually Earn?
NGCP emphasized that only a portion of the transmission charge represents payment for its core service.
According to the company, it charges about 56 centavos per kWh for the delivery of electricity through its transmission network. The remainder consists largely of pass-through costs, including ancillary services that are remitted to service providers.
The company also noted that its revenues are subject to a regulatory cap and oversight by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
The Bigger Picture
The reduction highlights how electricity bills are influenced by a complex mix of factors beyond the cost of generating power. While consumers often focus on generation charges, transmission and ancillary service costs can also rise or fall from month to month depending on grid conditions and market prices.
For June, at least, those costs are moving in a favorable direction โ offering households a small but timely break amid broader concerns about the cost of living.
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