Meralco expects stronger earnings as power demand, generation improve
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest power distributor, expects to post stronger financial results this year as electricity sales and generation operations continue to improve.
Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said on Tuesday, June 30, that the group’s generation and distribution businesses are expected to drive earnings higher, potentially surpassing the ₱50.6-billion net income recorded in 2025.
“I think the full-year profits would be ahead of last year. Definitely. And we’ve seen the actual year-to-date May and best estimate for June, which is the last day today,” he told reporters on the sidelines of Meralco’s annual stockholders’ meeting (ASM).
“The DU volumes [are] back up in May and June ahead of last year. In May, it was ahead by four percent, which is quite good. In June, probably two- to three-percent ahead of last year,” he added.
“Then the generation business is doing much better than last year, especially with the onset of TerraSolar,” Pangilinan said.
Through its power generation unit, Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGEN), the TerraSolar project is expected to complete its second phase by 2027.
“In the coming months, we’re already exporting, evacuating power to the grid and as progress continues towards completion by August of phase one, then we’ll be able to evacuate more power to the grid,” Pangilinan said.
While the company awaits major fundraising initiatives, Pangilinan said he continues to monitor developments in the Middle East, which could still affect the country’s energy sector.
“There could be new challenges that we don’t know. Right now, the worst challenge is the Iran-US [United States] situation... It keeps getting revived,” he said, adding that despite these headwinds, Meralco remains on track to achieve its financial targets.
Beyond its distribution business in Luzon, Meralco is looking to relocate some of its combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) from Batangas province to Visayas and possibly Mindanao to help address tightening power supplies in those regions.
“Clearly, Visayas needs more capacity; we’ll probably build the gas plants definitely in Visayas and probably a portion in Mindanao as well,” Pangilinan said.
MGEN President Emmanuel Rubio said the company has six turbines with a combined capacity of about 435 megawatts (MW), although it is still evaluating where the facilities will be deployed.