MANILA, Philippines – Manila Electric Company (Meralco) saw a 6% boost in net income in 2017, earning P20.4 billion for the year, fueled by higher electricity sales.
During Meralco's operating and financial results briefing on Monday, February 26, the utility firm said core net income stood at P20.2 billion at end-2017, which was 3% percent higher than 2016's P19.6 billion.
"The year 2017 turned out to be another good year for Meralco... For the first time in history, sales each month exceeded 3,000 gigawatt hours (GWh), so that's something that I think helped us generate record sales in 2017," said Meralco president Oscar Reyes.
In 2017, the utility firm saw its revenue increase by 10% to P282.55 billion, from P257.18 billion in 2016.
Meralco said 2017 proved to be another strong year on the commercial, operating, and financial fronts.
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Meralco's consolidated energy sales volumes last year increased by 5% to 42,102 GWh, brought about by a growing customer base, positive economic conditions, stable power supply, as well as low power plant outages.
It ended 2017 with a total of 6.3 million customer accounts.
Meralco added that it saw no significant rate issues with the average retail price at P8.03 per kilowatt hour (kWh) as of December 31, 2017, the 2nd lowest since 2010, albeit higher than in 2016, due to higher fuel prices and depreciation of the Philippine peso against the United States dollar.
The company had earmarked P12.1 billion in capital spending budget for 2017. – Rappler.com