The Manila Electric Co., or Meralco, the country’s largest power distributor, estimates a 4.5 percent sales growth in 2023, which it hopes to maintain throughout the year.

“For 2023, we will be hovering around 4.4 to 4.5 percent (sales growth). (This year,) we are projecting about the same—about 4.5 percent,” Meralco senior vice president and chief revenue officer Ferdinand Geluz said in an interview with reporters.

Financial figures are still being determined by the dominant utility firm.

Geluz conveyed the company expects improvements across all customer segments.

“We are hoping that the construction industry will have some sort of rebound. We do not expect another double-digit (growth) for the commercial segment (this year), but we expect an industrial rebound. With El Nino, the residential segment could have a little spike,” he said.

Meralco’s energy sales in 2022 logged a 6 percent improvement to 48,916 gigawatt-hours, or gWh, from 46,073 GWh in the previous year due to sustained customer demand growth.

It has yet to release its full 2023 financial report but January to September data showed that the company generated P30 billion consolidated core net income, up 53 percent from P19.6 billion in the same period a year ago.

Meralco said consolidated reported net income during the period likewise grew by 44 percent to P28.4 billion from last year’s P19.8 billion.

Sales growth steady

The company attributed the growth to sustained energy sales growth, robust performance of the power generation business, and the completion of P49.1-billion distribution and asset true-up refunds since 2021.