Tuesday, 24 April, 2012
Power retailer Manila Electric Co. allocated P11.889 billion in capital expenditures in 2012 to boost its distribution network and meet the growing demand of customers.
Meralco said in a regulatory filing 75 percent of the capital budget would be spent in electricity projects amounting to P8.924 billion while the remaining P2.965 billion would be allotted for other projects.Meralco said that as a distributor, it is required by the government to take necessary steps, to build and maintain its network to meet minimum performance and service requirements.
The company said most of the funds would be sourced from internally generated cash flow and borrowings from local and foreign financial institutions. The company spent P8.5 billion in capital expenditures last year.
“The P11.889 billion approved capital expenditure budget is geared to support projects on areas with large concentration of core customers, give priority to correction of normal deficiencies in the system, stretch loading limits of Meralco facilities and initiate practical and cost-effective projects to correct system deficiencies,” it said.
Meralco officials said last week sales volume grew by close to 10 percent in the first quarter due to the continuing rebound of the commercial and industry sectors.
“The first quarter, compared to last year, was close to 10- percent growth,” Meralco chief operating officer Oscar Reyes said.
He said the higher sales volume reflected the “very robust real estate activity and other related sectors and semiconductor, metals, as well as food and beverages.”
“While volumes have grown, our average distribution rates is lower this year compared to last year so volume is up but [not the] average rate. The unit revenue per kWh is lower so we will take a look,” Reyes said.
(Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on /2012/April/25) source
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