Meralco’s power sales grew 6.6% in 11 months

By Alena Mae S. Flores – December 20, 2024, 7:10 pm
from manilastandard.net

Power retailer Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) reported a 6.6-percent increase in its power sales from January to November to 49,953 gigawatt-hours (GWh) from 46,866 GWh in the same period last year, driven by higher demand from the residential and commercial sectors.

Meralco senior vice president and chief revenue officer Ferdinand Geluz said residential year-to-date sales reached 17,962 GWh, or 9.8 percent higher than 16,363 GWh a year ago, through consistent energization of new accounts and steady organic growth.

He said commercial sales hit 18,719 GWh, or 7.6 percent higher than 17,394 GWh a year earlier, brought upon by continued expansion of retail, real estate and hotel accounts.

Geluz said industrial sales amounted to 13,138 GWh, up 1.2 percent from 12,977 GWh year-on-year, buoyed by increased demand in semiconductor, food and beverage (F&B) and plastics.

He said November sales alone went up 4.8 percent to 4,528 GWh from November 2023 sales.

Geluz earlier forecasted a sales growth of 6 percent for full year 2024 on the back of the high growth coming from the residential segment.

“I think for 2024, at the start of the year, we forecast around 4.7 percent. Now we are seeing 6 percent so we’ll end up the year with around 53,350 plus GWh,” he said.

“That’s technically close to 3,000 GWh additional from 2023. The drivers would still be high growth in residential followed by commercial. And a slight, modest growth in terms of industrial segment,” he said.