Meralco: Power sales up more than 6% in August

By Alena Mae S. Flores – September 3, 2023, 8:20 pm
from manilastandard.net

An executive of power retailer Manila Electric Co. said sales volume in August likely grew by “a little above six percent”.

“August month sales growth is estimated to be a little above six percent,” Meralco senior vice president Ferdinand Geluz said.

He said the commercial and residential segments continued to be the main drivers of growth last month.

Geluz earlier said Meralco was expecting a full-year sales volume growth of 4 percent, led by 5-percent increase in the second half.

“We’re projecting close to five percent growth for the second half, mainly driven by residential and commercial still,” said Geluz.

Geluz said the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines was also forecasting a rebound late this year.

“We sort of had some talk with SEIPI president, and he’s confident that semicon might have a rebound towards the latter part of the year,” Geluz said.

Meralco posted consolidated distribution utility energy sales volume growth of 3 percent in the first half to 24,792 gigawatt-hours from 23,968 GWh in the same period last year.

The company said higher temperatures and humidity during the dry season drove the increase in demand for electricity from the residential segment, while the continuing recovery and growth in the economy were drivers of commercial segment sales.

Sales mix also continued to shift towards pre-pandemic levels, with commercial segment accounting for a bigger 37-percent share from 35 percent in 2022.

The share of residential was the same at 35 percent, while industrial share slipped to 28 percent from 30 percent.

Meralco expects core income to reach “north of P30 billion” this year on the back of its strong financial performance in the first half.

Consolidated core net income in the first six months climbed 74 percent to P19.2 billion from P13.1 billion in the same period last year, driven by the 186-percent increase in contribution of the power generation business.