The consolidated core net income of power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) was still lower by 11-percent to P5.11 billion in the first quarter versus a heftier profitability of P5.724 billion in the same period last year pulled down by lower energy sales.
Nevertheless, the power firm’s income posted a significant climb of 66 percent to P4.3 billion in the first three months of this year as against a leaner P2.6 billion last year.
The company emphasized that its sales dropped by 4.0 percent last year to 10,473 gigawatt hours (GWh); given the continued slump logged in the commercial sector; although that is being offset by strong consumption of the residential segment and the apparent revival of business activities in the industrial sector.
“The share of industrial sales volumes was at 31 percent, representing 3,261 GWh in the first quarter of 2021,” the power firm noted, with it emphasizing that such had been“2.0-percentage points higher than the share during the same period in 2020.
Despite the re-enforcements of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ restrictions in the NCR plus bubble, company executives indicated that they have been seeing sustained momentum in highly probable upward trajectory in sales during the second quarter of this year.
“We’re optimistic about this year’s results for Meralco…the residential sector continues to be a very active contributor to revenues,” Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said, with him stressing that “we will continue to be agile and look at the challenges as opportunities for us to emerge as a better and even stronger organization.”
He qualified that the company’s favorable outlook this year is partly rooted on the fact that “internet connections have become an essential service for households and that benefits PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.) to the extent that there’s power that is needed to access the internet. We work hand in hand with Meralco, so residential will continue to be very, very active contributor to revenues for both PLDT and Meralco.”
For his part, Meralco President and Chief Executive Officer Ray C. Espinosa stated that the downtrend in power demand this year had not been as bad as the lockdowns last year, because movement restrictions had not been as rigid.
“Actually, sales across the segments have recovered. Residential very strong, industrial is very strong,” he said, further qualifying that while the commercial segment is still on downtrend, there had been shoots of recovery because sales on that segment just decelerated by 14-percent in March this year compared to the 20-percent average decline in previous months.
He underscored such upturn in energy sales could be mainly attributed to the government-underpinned Covid-19 protocols that had “not been as restrictive as the ECQ last year.”
Espinosa expounded “in fact, many commercial establishments – like BPOs (business process outsourcing) and call centers – those that provide essential services have been allowed to open at capacities well above those previously allowed in 2020.”
He highlighted though that “commercial is lagging behind obviously because it is the most affected even if we are talking about entire spectrum of micro, small and medium and large enterprises; but we are seeing this growth.”
Onward, the power company asserted that it would still be on “guarded optimism” on the forthcoming quarters “because we do not know if there would be a next wave of surge again and what restrictions would there be.”
But Espinosa stressed it was a prudent move on the part of the government, with it realizing that “the industrial (sector) would be necessary to pump prime the economy, so they focused on the major infrastructure projects,” as well as those in the manufacturing sector and the semiconductor industries.