Dive Brief:

• NextEra Energy is considering divesting parts of its Texas merchant fleet, officials said earlier this week during an earnings call, though they cautioned the company performs an asset review each year.
• Specifically under review are the Lamar and Forney plants, two gas facilities with a combined capacity of almost 3,000 MW.
• NextEra Energy Resources, the company's competitive energy business, signed power purchase agreements for approximately 725 MW of new wind and solar projects during the quarter, the company also announced on the call.

Dive Insight:

NextEra Energy is continuing to grow its renewable capacity while also taking a hard look at its combined-cycle fleet in Texas. 

"We look at that portfolio, our entire merchant portfolio every year and try to determine whether it still makes sense for us from a shareholder perspective to retain those merchant assets," CEO James Robo told analysts during a Wednesday earnings call. Specifically, he said the company is working on an assessment of the Lamar and Forney plants.

Lamar Energy Center is a combined cycle facility located about 110 miles northeast of Dallas, with a capacity of 1,000 MW. NextEra describes it as an "intermediate plant, which means it is dispatched to operate approximately 16 hours every day." The Forney Energy Center, also an intermediate plant, is a combined-cycle facility with 1,792 MW of capacity.

"I warn folks all the time, we've gone through processes before on our merchant assets," Robo said. "And that doesn't necessarily mean at the end of the day that we divest those assets. We sometimes go through the process and we retain those assets, but we believe that there may be folks that are very interested in those assets; they've been great assets for us."

"We believe that there might be a shareholder base or other bases out there that believe those assets are worth more to them than they would be to our shareholders," he said.

Meanwhile, NextEra continues to work towards regulatory approval on its merger with Hawaiian Electric, ever since the deal was proposed late last year. 

"[T]he final hurdle ... is state regulatory approval in Hawaii," Robo said on the call. "We have recently gotten a couple intervenors to either fall away or announce their support, and I was very pleased that the IBEW announced their support for the transaction last week."

Robo's expectation is that the deal, which has been met with notable opposition on the islands, won't get a decision from state regulators until next year. "[W]e're going to continue to work it and continue to talk to the parties to try to get it across the finish line," he said.

The company reported third-quarter net income of $879 million, or $1.93/share. Florida Power & Light, NextEra's principal regulated subsidiary, reported third-quarter 2015 net income of $489 million, or $1.07/share, compared to $462 million the year before.