The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) recorded a higher profit for 2017 following high consolidated energy sales volume and customer count.
Meralco president Oscar Reyes said that 2017 was another strong year for the company in its commercial, operating and financial aspects amid the cooler temperature during the period.
“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 3017. At the same time, there was an insignificant number of power outages and yellow alerts,” Reyes said.
The company’s core net income rose three percent to P20.2 billion versus P19.6 billion in 2016, Meralco chief finance officer (CFO) Betty Siy-Yap said.
Meanwhile, its net income went up by six percent from P19.12 billion to P20.4 billion.
Meralco’s energy sales in 2017 exceeded 3,000 gigawatt-hours (Gwh) each month, a first in the company’s 115-year history.
“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 the volume was at 3,039 GWh,” Reyes said.
Meralco closed the year with 6.33 million customer accounts, 288,000 more from end-2016.
The company is looking to continue its position towards a technology and digital transformation to disrupt its legacy distribution business to serve customers, Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said.
“In electricity distribution, this means smart meters, smart grid, smart cities, e-vehicles 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, hie-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,” Pangilinan added.
