Meralco profit up 3% in 2017 hike

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) turned in higher profit in 2017 after it recorded new highs in sales volume and customer count.

In a briefing, Meralco chief finance officer Betty Siy-Yap said core net income rose three percent from P19.6 billion in 2016 to P20.2 billion last year. Reported net income, meanwhile, rose six percent from P19.2 billion to P20.4 billion.

The latest numbers were ahead of the 2016 core profit of P19.58 billion and reported net income of P19.18 billion.

Consolidated revenues increased 10 percent from P257.2 billion to P282.6 billion as a result of higher volume and pass-through generation charges arising from higher fuel prices and peso depreciation.

In the same briefing, Meralco president Oscar Reyes said 2017 proved to be another strong year for the company in the commercial, operating and financial fronts despite the cooler temperature during the period.

The power distributor’s consolidated energy sales volume expanded by five percent to 42,102 gigawatt-hours, translating to a five-year compounded annual growth rate of five percent.

“Our sales performance benefited from strong electricity demand as a result of positive economic conditions. Second, relatively stable power supply. We had fewer weather disturbances in 2017. At the same time, there was an insignificant number of power outages and yellow alerts,” Reyes said.

In terms of energy sales, Reyes said 2017 was the first time in Meralco’s 115-year history that sales for each month exceeded 3,000 gwh.

“That’s something that helped us generate record sales during 2017, the highest being in June at  3,835 gwh where growth is about 5.5 percent and the lowest was in March last year when volume was at 3,039 gwh,” he said.

Moreover, the power distributor closed the year with 6.33 million customer accounts, an addition of 288,000 customers from end-2016.

For this year, Meralco will continue its position toward technology and digital transformation to disrupt its legacy distribution business to serve customers, its chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said.

“In electricity distribution, this means smart meters, smart grid, smart cities, e-vehicle and charging infrastructure. We aim to increasingly serve customers digitally, on-demand and at a touch of the finger,” he said.

“In power generation, this means increasing renewable energy (solar, wind, run-of-river, hydro, biomass and battery storage as this continues to mature), and the latest highly efficient and environmentally-responsive baseload and mid-merit coal and gas-fired plants,” he added.