Meralco posts P16.1-B income in 2020
MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) reported on Monday a consolidated net income of P16.149 billion in 2020, a 31-percent decrease from P23.37 billion in the same period a year ago. In a virtual press briefing, Meralco Chief Financial Officer Betty Siy-Yap reported that the power distributor’s consolidated revenues decreased by 14 percent to P275.3 billion from P318.3 billion.
Total electricity revenues were 14 percent lower at P267.9 billion, reflecting the 14-percent reduction in purchased power costs amounting to stood at P204.4 billion.
Pass-through charges accounted for 77 percent of total electricity revenues in the past year.
Siy-Yap said the decline in purchased electricity costs was mainly due to the decrease in generation costs, new power supply agreements, drop in prices of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market brought about by lower demand, lower power fuel prices, peso appreciation, and force majeure claims invoked by Meralco against its power suppliers.
According to Meralco, the force majeure claim reduced fixed costs and avoided charges with the temporary suspension of mid-merit supply contracts providing savings of P2.4 billion to consumers.
Meralco President and Chief Executive Officer Ray Espinosa reported that consolidated energy sales dropped by 7 percent to 505 gigawatt hours (GWh) last year, with the implementation of coronavirus quarantine in the early part of 2020 prompted a significant decline in demand.
Yet, with the easing of community quarantine restrictions beginning May last year, certain commercial and industrial establishments slowly resumed operation.
By end-2020, the residential segment cornered 38 percent of the total electricity sales because of work-from-home arrangements, online distance learning, and limited mobility.
The three typhoons — Quinta, Rolly and Ulysses — which struck the country last year also affected Meralco’s energy sales volume.
On the other hand, commercial and industrial segments took 34 percent and 28 percent, respectively, of the sales volume.
Meralco’s customer base rose by 3.6 percent to 7.132 million. Residential customers capturing 92 percent of the total customer count while commercial and industrial customers got the remaining 8 percent.
Meralco’s distribution charge per kilowatt hour remains unchanged with aggregate distribution revenues in 2020 lower by 8 percent at P60.6 billion compared with 2019 due to lower volumes sold.
“It’s a very volatile environment that we foresee for 2021 given the continuing effect of the pandemic in the economy. The January numbers are slower than the volume last year,” said Meralco Chairman Manuel Pangilinan.
“For the better part of first quarter, our numbers will be likely lower than last year. We do hope to see this positive trend for the balance of the year,” he told reporters.
Meralco shares gained P3 or 1.11 percent to close at P274 apiece on Monday.