(The Philippine Star) | Updated February 23, 2017 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines -
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) likely achieved its core net income guidance of
P19 billion last year as overall demand bill volume went up.
Meralco chairman Manuel
V. Pangilinan told reporters the power distributor is expected to have met its
P19 billion core net profit guidance for 2016.
“Overall demand bill
volume was slightly above eight percent for the entire year,” he said.
As of end-September
last year, Meralco’s core net income reached P14.96 billion, down five percent
from P15.8 billion in the same period in 2015.
Earlier, Alfredo
Panlilio, senior vice president and head of customer retail services and
corporate communications said Meralco breached the 40,000 gigawatt-hour (gwh)
consolidated sales volume last year.
Of the total
consolidated sales volume last year, the Meralco franchise accounted for
39,500 gwh, while affiliate Clark Energy Development Corp. accounted for more
than 500 gwh.
Earlier, Meralco filed
an application with the Energy Regulatory Commission to stagger the expected
power rate hike following the Malampaya shutdown over a period of three months.
Pangilinan said the
move is intended to ease the burden on consumers.
“We were simply just
trying to alleviate the pain on the wallet of consumers by making it an
installment plan so to speak, because the increase in the power rates and the
generation rates was driven mainly by the scheduled maintenance shutdown of the
Malampaya gas field,” he said.
“It’s up to the
government what to do,” he added.
Under the application,
Meralco wants to stagger the recovery of the generation charge from consumers
starting March until May.
Meralco’s overall rate
for the March billing is expected to increase by about 91.74¢ per
kilowatt-hour.
The power distributor
wants to impose a generation charge of 30¢ per kwh in March and April, and the
remaining balance in May 2017.
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