BACOLOD City – Pro-consumer group Power Watch Negros (PWN) is questioning to the private firm power transmission in relation to the ancillary services and other charges reflected in the electricity bills.
Wennie Sancho, secretary general of PWN, wrote a letter to Atty. Cynthia Perez, Vice President for Regulatory Affairs of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on November 21, seeking clarification on ancillary services and associated charges reflected in electricity bills.
Sancho questioned how ancillary services costs are calculated and allocated to consumers.
He also sought clarification about the specific charges for regulation up/down and delayed contingency raise, detailed information on system losses and reserve power costs, transparency in billing and tariffs, and measures in place to optimize ancillary services and minimize costs.
“As a consumer organization, advocating to advance the welfare of the electricity consumers based in this city, we are apprehensive that NGCP’s breakdown of ancillary services shall lead to higher electricity rates for consumers,” read part of the letter.
For instance, Visayas ancillary service rates have increased due to higher cost for regulation up/down and delayed contingency raise sourced from reserve market, Sancho said.
Earlier, NGCP conducted a “Power 101” seminar at L’Fisher Hotel in this city. It aimed at educating print and broadcast media representatives, as well as local government information officers, on the key aspects of the country’s power transmission system.
Neil Martin Modina, NGCP Assistant Vice President and Head for Visayas System Operations, led an in-depth presentation covering NGCP’s history, significant achievements, and its role within the energy industry.
He highlighted the topics such as substation capacity expansion, NGCP’s performance from 2009 to 2023, and how that performance is evaluated based on various indicators – grid reliability, outage frequency, grid stability, and customer satisfaction.
Other key topics included the breakdown of transmission charges on electricity bills and the common causes of power interruptions./PN
