Meralco sees energy sales to grow by 4%

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) expects a 3- to 4-percent hike in its energy sales for the first half of this year.

In a chance interview, Meralco Chairman Manny Pangilinan said that year-on-year “energy sales growth (was) about 3 to 4 percent.”

Pangilinan said the increase in customer count of between 3 and 4 percent could have driven such growth in energy sales.

But he said the final figures would be announced on Monday during Meralco’s first-half results briefing.

For the first quarter of this year, Meralco had an increased customer count of 4 percent, which rose its full customer count to more than 5.6 million consumers, which was mainly driven by new residential customer accounts.

The 4-percent growth in customer count brought in an additional 2 percent growth in energy consumption.

Commercial segment, on the other hand, grew by 3 percent, accounting for a 40 percent in total company sales from hospitality and services, real estate and retail trade industries.

The utility firm’s commercial customer count grew 2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015.

Meralco had distributed 8,092 gigawatt hours (GWh) for the first quarter of 2015.

Meanwhile, the firm posted a consolidated net income of P4.4 billion in the first quarter of 2015, 8 percent higher than the first quarter of 2014, due to 4 percent growth in the number of customers.

Meralco’s revenues for the first quarter had amounted to P62.6 billion, which was 14 percent higher than last year’s revenues of P55.1 billion. PNA