Power retailer Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) saw its power sales grow by more than 7 percent in the first nine months of 2024 from a year ago on the back of the strong performance of the residential and commercial segments, an executive said Monday.
Meralco senior vice president and chief revenue officer Ferdinand Geluz said the nine-month sales reached 40,331 gigawatt-hours, up 7.1 percent from the same period last year.
Geluz said sales of the residential segment climbed 10 percent; commercial, 8 percent; and industrial, 2 percent.
He said September sales reached 4,553.51 GWh, up 3.3 percent from a year ago.
“September seems tempered given El Niño last year’s September, and now it’s transitioned to La Niña…but it’s expected and is above our internal target for September month growth,” Geluz said.
Geluz said Meralco was also on track to meeting its full-year sales target. Meralco previously set a 5-percent to 6-percent sales growth goal for 2024.
“We are actually hovering our full-year target,” he said.
Meralco’s consolidated distribution utility energy sales volumes in the first half rose to 26,954 gigawatt-hours (GWh) from 24,792 GWh, as volumes of Meralco and Clark Electric Distribution Corp. went up by 9 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
Six-month sales volumes received a boost from second-quarter sales which hit a new record—with monthly volumes breaching the 5,000 GWh-level in May, largely driven by the double-digit growth in residential and commercial segments.
The commercial segment had the biggest share of 37 percent in the energy sales mix, while residential and industrial accounted for 36 percent and 26 percent, respectively as of end-June.
Consolidated customer count was at 7.9 million as of end June, or 3-percent more than the 7.7 million reported last year, with sustained efforts to energize new customers.
