Meralco sees sales rising 8% this year

MANILA, Philippines – Power distribution giant Manila Electric Co. expects to post a little over eight percent growth in energy sales this year, driven by its  robust performance in the early part of the year, a ranking official said yesterday.

In an interview with reporters yesterday, Meralco SVP and head for customer retail services and corporate communications Alfredo Panlilio said year-end sales volume was estimated to have risen by 8.1 percent to nearly 40,000 gigawatt hours (gwh).

In 2015, energy sales went up 5.6 percent to 37,124 gwh.

“It’s gonna be roughly about 39,600 gwh and if you add CEDC (which is) roughly about 500 gwh, it will exceed the 40,000 gwh,” Panlilio said.

The projection is hinged on the double-digit sales growth registered in the first seven months of the year.

“It is high because the first half was high, we had a double digit growth until July, which is around 10 percent. Growth cooled off these last few months,” Panlilio said.

Meralco earlier attributed the robust growth in the first few months to high demand due to the extremely hot weather caused by the El Niño phenomenon.

Growth was expected to taper off in the second half of the year because of the cooler temperature, which tempered the strong customer growth and business appetite.

Meralco is seen to end the year with over six million customers, Panlilio said.

The power retailer is  also eyeing to hit its core profit guidance of P19 billion, slightly higher than the P18.8 billion recorded in 2015.

Meeting the target would be driven by growth in customer base and demand, said Meralco chairman Manuel Pangilinan.