Rains fail to dampen power sales of Meralco in August

By Lenie Lectura – September 2, 2024
from Business Mirror

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) saw its energy sales volume rise by nearly 8 percent year-on-year in August, a company official said over the weekend.

Initial figures showed that the year-to-date sales volume grew at around 7.8 percent or higher, according to Meralco Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer Ferdinand Geluz.

“The growth was still robust even with rainy season setting in but not as high as when there was El Niño during the first half,” he said, adding that residential and commercial energy sales continue to be strong while industrial sector maintained a modest growth.

Indicative numbers, he said, pointed to a double-digit growth of more than 11 percent for residential, 8 percent for commercial and 3 percent for industrial.

As for customer count, Meralco said it may have added 220,000 new customers. It now has 7.95 million subscribers.

Meralco reported that it sold a record high of over 5,000 gigawatt-hours last May. Sales volume grew 10 percent year-on-year.

“This is the first time consolidated sales have breached 5,000 gigawatt-hours on a monthly basis,” Geluz had said.

Meralco is expecting full-year core income to hit P43 billion this year, higher than earlier guidance of P40 billion.

“Due to Meralco’s strong operational and financial performance in the first half of the year, we are prepared to upgrade our initial guidance of P40 billion CCNI (consolidated core net income) to P43 billion CCNI for the full year 2024,” Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said in a statement.

At end-June, Meralco’s CCNI shot up to 21 percent to P23.2 billion from P19.2 billion in the same period last year driven by higher sales volumes of the distribution utility, and increased sales in the second quarter due to higher availability of power generation plants.

In the first quarter, the company’s capital expenditures reached P9.4 billion, of which P4.99 billion were utilized for distribution networks projects that included new connections, asset renewals, and load growth projects.

Last January, Meralco projected that energy sales volume for this year could grow by 4.5 percent on the back of the continued economic recovery of the Philippines.

Image credits: BusinessMirror file photo