MANILA, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) managed to grow its sales volume by three percent in the first four months of the year, showing signs of recovery despite the continuing pandemic.
“The first few months of the year show evidence of recovery and healthy growth,” Meralco president and CEO Ray Espinosa said during the company’s virtual stockholders’ meeting yesterday.
As of end-April, Meralco’s energy sales rose three percent to 14,261 GWh. Net system input also increased by two percent to 15,002 GWh.
“Likewise, we continue to energize more customers as shown by year-to-date customer count growth rate of four percent,” Espinosa said.
Meralco’s customer count reached 7.23 million at the end of April.
For the whole of 2020, Meralco’s energy sales slipped by seven percent to 43,527 GWh while net system input also declined by seven percent to 45,919 GWh.
The decline in sales volume was driven largely by the impact of strict community quarantine to the commercial and industrial segments.
For this year, Meralco will invest in projects that will heighten revenue enhancement and expansion, as well as raise sustainability programs across its business units.
“For the distribution utility (DU), we will accelerate the energization of project covered applications and ordinary service applications while ensuring zero leakage and zero unbilled volumes,” Espinosa said.
“We will also expand Meralco’s business by serving new areas through key partnerships and by expanding our pole management operations to urban services and non-cable attachments such as 5G surveillance and environmental sensors,” he said.
Digital transformation and sustainability will also continue to be key projects of Meralco this year.
“We will continue to build the grid of the future today through our advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and advanced distribution management system, and through substation and distribution automation. We are also improving our capabilities in load sensing and predictive fault monitoring to heighten service delivery while integrating an integrated ICT command center to increase visibility and control over our grid,” Espinosa said.
To further raise its sustainability, Meralco will start replacing its fleet with electric vehicles, widen its zero-waste program beyond its business centers, and convert its transformers into greener technology.
“Beginning this year, we will deploy electric pickups, vans, cars and motorcycles to serve our Metro Manila business centers. We will also heighten our race to zero waste program not only in the centers of our operations but also to the edges of our distribution network. Going forward, 100 percent of our new distribution transformers will be powered by plant based natural ester oil, making these assets 99 percent recyclable and biodegradeable,” Espinosa said.
Moreover, Meralco will also accelerate its transition to clean energy by aiming to source 1,500 megawatts (MW) of power requirements from renewable energy sources in the next five years while committing to build up to 1,500 MW of utility scale renewable energy power plants in the next five to seven years, the company chief said.
For its subsidiaries, Meralco will work on integrating Global Business Power Corp. (GBPC) into its power generating unit, Meralco Powergen Corp. (MGen).
“Looking towards our subsidiaries and following the acquisition of GBPC last March 31, our focus now moves into integrating GBPC into MGen,” Espinosa said.
GBPC is the largest independent power producer in the Visayas with an existing portfolio totaling 1,091 MW.
On Dec. 23, MGen acquired the stakes of Beacon Power Holdings Inc. (56 percent) and JG Summit Holdings Inc. (30 percent) in GBPC, resulting in full ownership. The transactions were completed last March 31.
Espinosa said Meralco would also continue to drive the growth of Bayad, Radius Telecom, Miescor and all its subsidiaries with the launch of their new and strategic offerings.