El Niño heats up Meralco’s energy sales this year

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power utility, is poised to end the year with modest growth in energy sales amid hotter demand in the residential segment.

Following brisk results in the first nine months, Meralco senior vice president and chief revenue officer Ferdinand Geluz is seeing a six-percent uptick in energy sales volume by yearend.

This is higher than the company’s 4.7 percent forecast at the start of the year.

“So we’ll end the year with over 53,350 gigawatt-hours. That’s close to 3,000 GWh additional compared to 2023,” Geluz said.

Last year, Meralco reported a total distribution utility sales volume of 51,044 GWh from 48,916 GWh in 2022 as households used cooling appliances more often due to the El Niño phenomenon.

This year, the company is still banking on the strong consumption from residential and commercial customers, coupled with the slight growth in the industrial segment.

From January to September, Meralco’s energy sales volume grew seven percent to 40,872 GWh from 38,164 GWh on an annual basis.

By segment, residential sizzled by 10 percent to 14,758 GWh from 13,363 GWh, as new household consumers were energized during the period.

Consumer demand also remained stable due to persisting warmer temperatures despite the transition to the rainy season.

Sales volume in the commercial segment, meanwhile, edged eight percent higher to 15,261 GWh from 14,122 GWh despite the exit of locators of offshore gaming operations and the continuing remote work setup.

As for industrial, sales continued to recover, inching up by two percent to 10,743 GWh from 10,570 GWh amid strong volumes from the plastics and food and beverage industries.

Of the total energy sales mix, commercial accounted for 37 percent, followed closely by residential (36 percent) and industrial (26 percent).

Meralco expects its customer count to breach the eight-million mark this month.

In another development, Meralco solar unit MSpectrum Inc. has fortified its partnership with brandy and whisky maker Emperador Inc. with the construction of a solar project in Laguna.

Emperador subsidiary Emperador Distillers Inc. (EDI) has tapped MSpectrum to put up a 640-kilowatt (kW) peak solar facility inside its manufacturing plant in Santa Rosa City.

Annually, the project is expected to produce over 832,000 kW hours of clean power and reduce EDI’s carbon footprint by around 593 metric tons.

“We are fully committed to our partnership and look forward to leveraging our expertise to support Emperador in achieving its sustainability goals,” MSpectrum president and CEO Ma. Cecilia Domingo said.

This latest partnership builds on MSpectrum’s previous tie-up with EDI unit Anglo Watsons Glass Inc. for the installation of a two-megawatt-peak solar photovoltaic system in its Canlubang glass manufacturing plant in 2023.

Backed by the Meralco Group’s energy expertise and proven track record, MSpectrum offers services and solar solutions to help customers lower their electricity costs while advancing their sustainability initiatives.