Meralco sees sales growing 2.5% this year

MANILA, Philippines — Distribution giant Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) expects its energy sales volume to grow by 2 percent to 2.5 percent this year, slightly lower than its initial 3 percent forecast, as the rising adoption of rooftop solar among households and businesses dampens demand.

Still, the updated forecast is an improvement from last year’s nearly flat sales volume, which was logged at 53,997 gigawatt-hours.

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Ronnie Aperocho, the utility’s executive vice president and COO, said that while Meralco’s consumer base grew by 2.2 percent to about 8.3 million in the first half, half of the new customers are from the residential segment.

“So, in terms of sales contribution, it’s not a good thing compared to the commercial or industrial … Some of these new residential customers that we’re energizing also have their own rooftop solar, so that’s really the challenge,” he said in a media briefing recently.

Aperocho also noted the impact of energy conservation efforts on Meralco sales.

“Not only in the residential segment, but even in commercial. Take note that the shopping centers reduce the operating hours just to save the cost of electricity,” he said.

Several malls in the country cut their operating hours starting March amid the declaration of the national energy emergency following the bombing attacks in the Middle East, which disrupted energy supply and sent global oil prices to skyrocket.

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But Aperocho was confident about sales volume bouncing back, especially with the ongoing El Niño that could fuel strong power consumption.

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“In fact, for the month of July, [we recorded] 6.9-percent growth already. And I think that growth will be sustained,” he said.

The power giant ended the first half of this year with P26.5 billion in consolidated core net income, up 3.8 percent from a year ago’s P25.5 billion.

Its distribution business continued to provide the largest share at P12.7 billion, accounting for 48 percent of the consolidated core earnings. INQ