The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) over the weekend projected sales in the first six months growing 8.7 percent higher compared to last year.
Ferdinand Geluz, Meralco senior vice president and chief revenue officer, told reporters of consolidated power sales aggregating 26,952 gigawatt hours (GWh) during the period.
Meralco reported sales of only 24,792 GWh for the same period last year.
Meralco said the growth was driven by double-digit sales expansion in the residential and commercial segments arising from the need to use more cooling equipment due to El Niño heat indices rising across its franchise area this year.
Approximately 2.5 GWh more consumption daily is noted for every degree rise in the heat index.
“El Nino’s warmer real temperature impacts are felt on residential consumption in the first half this year on top of robust customer growth of close to 200,000 additional residential customers compared to last year. Commercial sales also saw growth on newly energized hotels/retail/leisure and entertainment establishments as well increasing occupancy and patronage of hotels, restaurants, retail, retail estate establishments,” Geluz said.
Meralco is set to officially announce its first-half operating performance next week.
In April, Meralco announced an 11-percent increase in consolidated core net income in the first three months this year of P10.1 billion compared to last year’s P9.05 billion. Its core net income for the full year could hit more than P40 billion.
Last year, Meralco booked a 35 percent jump in net income to P38.68 billion compared to P28.59 billion in 2022.
