Meralco reports 10% rise in 2022 income

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) expects sustained improvement in profitability this year after earnings last year grew by double digits, driven by higher energy sales volumes and a robust power generation business.

Meralco yesterday reported a 10-percent rise in consolidated core net income for 2022 to P27.1 billion from P24.6 billion in 2021.

This was achieved on the back of improved energy sales volumes that exceeded prepandemic levels, coupled with strong power generation business that booked significant earnings from its gas-fired power plant in Singapore.

Meralco’s reported net income for 2022, meanwhile, jumped by 21 percent to P28.4 billion from P23.5 billion the previous year.

“Twenty-twenty-two was a very good year for Meralco. And so we hope to improve, on those profit numbers, financial numbers this 2023. We expect obviously for the profit picture to improve, but too early at this stage to give profit guidance,” Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said in a virtual briefing yesterday.

Pangilinan said Meralco’s performance during the first month of the year was already “quite good” and “certainly better than last year’s first month.”

Meralco is hopeful that the momentum will continue in the succeeding months of 2023.

“I am confident that 2023 will be another productive year for Meralco, raising shareholder value much further in 2023, and remaining a reliable nation-building partner of the country,” Pangilinan said.

For last year, Meralco’s revenues surged by 34 percent to P426.5 billion from 2021’s P318.5 billion, driven primarily by the effect of higher fuel costs on generation charge and energy fee.

Consolidated distribution utility energy sales volumes grew by six percent year-on-year to 48,916 gigawatt hours, as the reinvigoration of the economy led to higher demand for power.

The commercial segment accounted for 36 percent of Meralco’s sales mix, while residential and industrial segments accounted for 35 percent and 29 percent, respectively.

Meralco registered a three-percent growth in its consolidated customer count to 7.6 million at end-2022 from 7.4 million in 2021 on the back of higher energization for both project-covered applications and ordinary service applications.

Meanwhile, the power generation business contributed P5.5 billion to Meralco’s consolidated core net income last year, owing to the strong performance of its Singapore-based gas plant.

Meralco PowerGen Corp. has a total power generation capacity of 2,251 MW in the Philippines and in Singapore.

“Twenty-twenty-two was a year of recovery as we saw energy sales exceeding prepandemic levels – reflective of the return of strong power demand across all customer segments after more than two years of pandemic lockdowns,” Meralco president and CEO Ray Espinosa said.

Espinosa said the power distributor continued to boost operational efficiency and ended 2022 with less and shorter service interruptions as well as improvements in system loss.

“We, however, faced headwinds such as the significant rise in fuel prices and the depreciation of the peso, which weighed on our overall rates. We remain cautious about the lingering effects of these challenges, alongside the anticipated tight supply condition in the coming dry months,” Espinosa said.