Meralco eyes 3.5% rise in electricity sales in 2015

MANILA, Philippines–Manila Electric Co. is targeting a modest growth in power sales volume for 2015 with the encouraging effect of the declining oil prices on electricity consumption.

“We’ll end the year (2014) with around 3 percent sales growth. For next year, we are projecting an increase of 3.5 (percent),” Meralco SVP and head for customer retail services Al Panlilio told reporters.

Meralco officials said the decline in oil prices tended to encourage consumption in general, which could translate to higher power use even though customers strive to use electricity wisely.

Panlilio said consumers in both residential and industrial areas had higher levels of energy efficiency conservation and saving consciousness. Based on studies on consumer behavior, Meralco found out that the lower segment of the market, on the one hand, had been increasing electricity use. The higher segment, on the other hand, registered a decline in electricity consumption.

“Our advisories have heightened consumer awareness and sensitivity to consumer conservation,” Meralco president Oscar S. Reyes said.

In December, Meralco expects sales volume growth to slow to below 3 percent, Reyes said. In November, sales volume grew by 6.6 percent year on year, he said.

As for the company’s core net profit, Reyes said Meralco was expected to post P17.8 billion despite a slow first half.

“I think we’re on track to meeting our profit guidance,” Reyes said. “It was very slow during the first half of the year through the third quarter. In fact we were very concerned during the first quarter because it was almost flat because of two things–one was the cooler temperature and the pricing concerns on high prices.”

In terms of prices and generation charge increases this year, they have been rather benign, Reyes said.

“We didn’t have any of the spikes or volatility that we saw in the last quarter of 2013 partly due to the fact that there were no abnormal outages. Outages were still being experienced but they did not overlap and there was no confluence of the Malampaya gas platform shutdown, as well as scheduled and unscheduled outages of power plants in the last two months of 2014.”