THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will allot P25 billion in capital expenditure for its power distribution business next year.
Ronnie Aperocho, Meralco executive vice president and chief operating officer, told reporters om the sidelines of a corporate event in Pasig City last week the amount is bigger than this year’s capex of P22 billion.
“More on grid resilience, storm hardening exactly since we have to intensify the strengthening of the networks given our current situation right now that we have a parade of storms…the integrity of our distribution system is really, somewhat in danger if our system is not really that storm-hardened,” Aperocho said, when asked where most of the capex will go.
Aperocho said Meralco’s affiliates especially for power generation have separate bigger capital requirements.
Officials said due to its strong performance in the first nine months of the year, Meralco will likely exceed the P43-billion income guidance for full year 2024.
This is Meralco’s second upgrade for its income guidance for this year which was originally set at P40 billion.
Manuel Pangilinan, Meralco chairman and chief executive officer, in a recent interview said with this expected strong performance, Meralco “look(s) forward to another profitable year in 2025 from organic growth and contributions from new investments.”
