MVP sees good year for Meralco

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan expects stronger earnings contribution from its generation business this year as the power distributor looks forward to a “good year” ahead.

“We should see a significant uptick in the profits of the generation part of the business. And we saw that in this morning’s board meeting when the results of the generation business were reported to the board. So it will be a good year for the generation business,” Pangilinan said during Meralco’s annual stockholders’ meeting yesterday.

“There have been instances indeed last year where certain entities incurred losses, as in the case of Global Business Power (GBP),” he said.

Pangilinan said the losses were partly due to the impact of Typhoon Odette in the Visayas, as well as the global fuel price increases due to the Ukraine war.

“So management has been tasked to look for ways to turn around those losing plants. And indeed, starting this year, GBP as a whole, and MGen as a whole itself, has already turned positive and is now contributing to Meralco’s bottom line,” he said.

MGen, through renewable energy arm MGen Renewable Energy Inc., has set a target of building 1,500 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy projects by 2030.

“Aligned with One Meralco’s long term sustainability strategy, MGen-GBP is in fact transitioning to cleaner and greener energy in a just, orderly and affordable manner. And this is to ensure the provision of reliable cost, competitive, and sustainable power,” Meralco first vice president and chief sustainability officer Raymond Ravelo said.

“While our goal as mentioned is to build 1,500 MW of attributable renewable energy capacity, our pipeline today stands at over 1,700 MW. And this is with a number of projects under various stages of development and across multiple clean technologies such as solar wind, and battery energy storage systems, among others,” he said.

MGen started its journey toward a balanced and low-carbon energy mix in 2021 through the opening of PowerSource First Bulacan Solar Inc.’s 55-MWac solar plant in San Miguel, Bulacan.

In February, MGreen expanded its portfolio with the energization of a 68-MWac solar plant in Currimao, Ilocos Norte in partnership with Vena Energy Solar PH Pte Ltd.

Ravelo said a third project, a 75-MWaC solar farm in Baras, Rizal, is expected to be completed before the end of the second quarter of this year.

“In addition, MGen-GBP strive toward cleaner and greener energy will be marked by the conversion of its Atimonan One Energy project from coal to liquefied natural gas or LNG for baseload supply,” Ravelo said.

“In fact, there is an ongoing ECC (environmental compliance certificate) application for the development of a gas fired power plant. All these are actually part and parcel of One Meralco’s overarching objective to be coal free by the year 2050,” he said.

Overall, Pangilinan said he expects “a good year” for Meralco as a whole.

During a briefing in April, Pangilinan said Meralco could be headed to another double-digit growth in core profitability this 2023 after starting the year on a high note with higher earnings and revenues.

Meanwhile, Pangilinan, during Meralco’s annual stockholders’ meeting yesterday, also expressed gratitude to the contributions of outgoing president and chief executive officer Ray Espinosa.

“He has this past four years, as our chief executive, led Meralco quite a few apex challenges, including a generation-defining pandemic. When our population was locked down and anxious about their supply survival, about the health of their loved ones, and their job security, Meralco kept the lights on, and even offered a reprieve to our people in the form of extended payment deadlines,” Pangilinan said.

“Ray was at the helm of Meralco at that critical juncture, balancing the needs of our customers, which all required power on a continuous basis, with the health of our employees, ultimately succeeding in keeping the ship steady during such unsettled time,” he said.

Espinosa was named president and CEO of Meralco in 2019, succeeding long-time chief Oscar Reyes.

“We’re all extremely fortunate to have had you at the wheel these past four years. I would simply ask that you stay with us for at least until the end of this year as advisor to the office of the chairman since I would need your help to ship a bigger and more complex ship moving forward,” Pangilinan said.

Immediately after the annual meeting of the company’s stockholders yesterday, Meralco’s board of directors held its organizational meeting, wherein Pangilinan was elected as new president and chief executive officer.