Meralco forecasts 250-MW annual demand growth

MANILA, Philippines - Power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is forecasting an annual demand growth in its franchise area of at least 250 megawatts (MW) in the next five years.

This calls for a capital spending to be in the vicinity of P70 billion, its top official said.

“Our investment in power distribution will be P65 to 70 billion from 2016 to 2020,” Meralco president Oscar S. Reyes said, noting demand will continue to grow by about 250 to 300 MW peak demand per year.

Currently, Meralco’s franchise area covers over 5.7 million customers in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite and Rizal, as well as certain areas in Batangas, Laguna, Pampanga, and Quezon.

Last month, Meralco group treasurer and first vice president Rafael Andrada said the company raised its five-year spending to P154 billion for 2016 to 2020 from the P86 billion earmarked for 2010 to 2015.

For 2016, Reyes said the power distributor is hiking its capital spending to over P18 billion for 2016 in anticipation of the growing requirements of its customers and to further digitize its networks.

“Our capital expenditure for 2016 is about P17.5 to P18.5 billion,” he said.

The projected spending is a least 20 percent higher compared with the 2015 programmed capex of P15 billion.

The 2016 spending is only for distribution projects to meet the needs of its customers.

“This is just the capex of Meralco. This does not include the investments under Meralco PowerGen and on the renewables,” Reyes said, noting spending for the power generation projects are still in the drawing board.

Its power generating projects are under Meralco PowerGen Corp., which is building a portfolio of up to 3,000 MW of new power capacity, mainly from baseload power plants, to address the growing energy demand in the country.

Last July, Meralco announced its plans to establish another subsidiary for its renewable energy projects, starting with solar technology. It will also look at wind, run-of-river, other hydropower and gas projects.

Reyes earlier said Meralco is eyeing up to 100 MW of solar-powered rooftops in the next three years.

Recently, the company partnered with local renewable energy developer Repower Energy Development Corp. (REDC) to construct hydropower projects.