Manila Electric Co., the biggest retailer of electricity, reduced its capital expenditure budget to P9.34 billion this year from P17.84 billion due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We expect network capex to be lower than budget for a number of reasons because it’s hard to get capex program going because of lockdown,” said Meralco chairman Manuel Pangilinan.
Meralco has so far utilized P2.541 billion out of the P9.34 billion capex allotted this year.
“Because of the ECQ, the design, engineering, and construction, and even procurement of our capex project have been delayed that we had to recast our budget from P17.84 billion to P9.34 billion, this only for the network side. P8.5 billion worth of capex would be carried over to next year,” said Meralco senior vice president and head of network Ronnie Aperocho.
Aperocho said the remaining budget for this year would be allotted to address customer requirements and address load growth.
Meralco’s customer count rose 4 percent to 6.9 million after adding over 251,000 new accounts.
“We have also allotted close half a billion for BBB and PPP because we expect the government for the timely completion of these projects. In fact, DOTr has already requested us to resume the pole relocation works related to four priority projects namely PNR North 1, MRT 7, LRT 1 Cavite Extension and the unified common station,” Aperocho said.
Meralco on Feb. 16 completed the relocation works on North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) Harbour Link Segment-10 (C3-R10 Section) along C3 Road and Dagat-Dagatan Avenue that facilitated the partial opening of the NLEx-Malabon Exit.
Although still ongoing, major relocation works were done on the government’s Build, Build, Build projects in PNR North 1, BGC-Ortigas Link, Skyway Stage 3, Light Rail Transit 1 (LRT 1) Cavite Extension and C5 Southlink.
Meanwhile, projects such as CaviteLaguna Expressway (CALAX), North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway (NLEx-SLEx) Connector Road, PNR North 2, Southeast Metro Manila Expressway (SEMME) C6 and Metro Rail Transit 7 (“MRT 7”) have proceeded to the design stage of the relocation works.
Aperocho said the design and engineering works on the projects had already resumed. Meralco has installed 40 poles of the MRT line 7 project and conducted span cables during the enhanced quarantine community period.
“We’re currently coordinating with DOTR for the release of more IDs for our working personnel and contractors, and with the DOE to grant us exemption from pre-arranged power interruption which are necessary for us to relocate our facilities,” Aperocho said.
The enhanced community quarantine beginning March severely limited Meralco’s deployment of people and transport of materials and equipment.
