POWER DISTRIBUTOR Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is allocating a capital expenditure (capex) budget of P26 billion to P30 billion for 2026 to fund its distribution projects, its top executive said.
Talking to reporters last week, Meralco Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer Ronnie L. Aperocho said the corporate is earmarking the next budget next yr compared with this yr’s P25 billion to support projects geared toward improving customer support.
“A part of the capex is allocated for processing customer applications, constructing recent substations, and replacing aging distribution facilities,” Mr. Aperocho said.
He also noted that Meralco plans to conduct trials of an underground cable system inside its franchise area.
The corporate can also be setting aside P8 billion for the proposed rollout of smart meters under its advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) program.
AMI is an integrated system of smart meters, communication networks, and implementation systems that allows two-way communication between utilities and customers. Smart meters allow electricity consumers to watch their power consumption in real time.
The proposed capex forms a part of Meralco’s budget under the primary regulatory period (RP) rate reset, set to start next yr. The speed reset process is a forward-looking exercise requiring utilities to submit forecasted expenditures and proposed projects for approval.
Meralco, the country’s largest power distributor with 8.1 million customers, goals to transition 11 million customers to AMI by 2034.
For the nine months ending September, the corporate posted a 14% increase in consolidated core net income to P40.02 billion, driven by higher revenues. Consolidated revenues rose 4.6% yr on yr to P371.77 billion, primarily resulting from electricity sales.
Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the corporate is confident it’ll meet its full-year core profit guidance of P50 billion, supported by growth in power generation and regular distribution performance.
“Based on the expansion of our power generation and the regular performance of our core distribution up to now nine months, we stay positive that we are going to achieve our full-year core profit guidance of P50 billion,” he said.
Meralco’s controlling shareholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Helpful Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera