Meralco sees electricity demand to pick up in H2

After sluggish H1

MANILA, Philippines — Power utility giant Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) expects energy sales to pick up in the remaining months of 2026, driven by strong electricity demand amid the El Niño weather phenomenon.

Meralco executive vice president and COO Ronnie Aperocho said power sales started to rebound last month, growing by 6.9 percent after a slight decline in the first half.

“I think that growth will be sustained. We expect to end the year with sales growth in the range of two to 2.5 percent,” Aperocho said in an interview.

The revised outlook marks an upgrade from the company’s earlier growth forecast of one to two percent after a sluggish start to the year.

From January to June, Meralco’s distribution business saw energy sales drop to 26,967 gigawatt-hours from 27,091 GWh a year earlier.

Warmer conditions in the second quarter boosted demand, but the improvement was not enough to offset the weak first-quarter results.

Commercial customers accounted for the largest share of total energy sales at 38 percent, followed by residential at 36 percent and industrial at 26 percent.

Meralco ended the first half with its customer base growing to 8.3 million, with households making up at least half of new connections.

“Some of these new residential customers that we’re energizing also have their own rooftop solar, so that’s really the challenge. The counter-effect is the solar they are putting up,” Aperocho said.

The growing adoption of rooftop solar weighed on Meralco’s energy sales, with customers generating around 372 GWh of electricity for their own use year-to-date, company data showed.

Just last week, the Department of Energy issued a circular directing power utilities like Meralco to remove “administrative barriers” to the installation of small-scale solar power systems.

Under the new rules, households and medical institutions will no longer need to secure pre-installation clearances, technical permits or pay inspection fees.

At least nine in 10 Filipinos want the government to make rooftop solar more affordable amid rising electricity costs, according to a recent nationwide Pulse Asia survey.