Dive Brief:
- Pinnacle West Capital Corp., the parent company of Arizona Public Service, reported $244.4 million in consolidated net income attributable to common shareholders for the 2014 third quarter, or $2.20 per diluted share, up from $2.04 per share for the same period a year ago.
- The company's AZ Sun Program, currently comprised of 150 MW of community-scale photovoltaic plants, increased earnings by $0.03 per share the company said.
- Pinnacle saw retail growth of 1.4% in the quarter, reflecting improvements in the state's economy, but said weather-normalized power sales were flat largely due to the effects of energy efficiency, customer conservation and distributed generation.
Dive Insight:
It was a good quarter for Pinnacle West, despite a mild August in its Arizona Public Service territory. The company also noted that despite customer growth, efficiency improvements and distributed resources largely held power sales flat in the quarter.
“By focusing on operational excellence, disciplined cost management and sound capital investments, our financial performance in the third-quarter was solid despite weather that, for the third summer in a row, was less favorable than normal,” said Pinnacle West Chairman, President and CEO Don Brandt.
Brandt noted that it was the fourth consecutive quarter that operations and maintenance costs have been a positive earnings driver. “As a result, we continue to expect our full-year on-going earnings to fall within our projected range of $3.60 to $3.75 per diluted share,” he said.
The company estimated its 2015 ongoing consolidated earnings will be within a range of $3.75 to $3.95 per diluted share. Longer-term, the company has set a goal to achieve a consolidated earned return on average common equity of more than 9.5% annually through 2016.
