Dive Brief:
- Lower after-tax charges related to construction of the company's integrated gasification combined cycle project in Kemper County, Mississippi, helped Southern post strong earnings in the first quarter of the year.
- The company took a $6 million charge this quarter, compared to a $235 million charge a year ago.
- Excluding those costs, Southern said it earned $514 million, or 56 cents per share, during the first quarter of 2015, compared to $586 million a year ago.
Dive Insight:
Depending on how you look at it, Southern Co.'s earnings increased significantly this quarter. While the company earned $514 million this year, compared with $586 million in 2014, those figures are absent charges related to construction of Mississippi Power's Kemper power facility, which were significantly lower this year.
Dow Jones Business News sums it out as such: a $508 million profit in the first quarter of this year, compared with $351 million in Q1'14.
Southern also said earnings were helped by retail revenue effects at its traditional operating companies, but offset by milder winter weather compared to 2014 and increased operating and maintenance expenses.
"We are encouraged by positive customer growth during the first quarter of 2015, along with strong industrial sales and an economic development pipeline that remains robust," Southern Chairman, President and CEO Thomas Fanning said in the company's earnings statement. "In the meantime, we remain focused on our core business strategy of providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable electricity to customers throughout the Southeast."
Operating revenues were $4.18 billion, compared with $4.64 billion for the same period in last year, almost a 10% decline quarter-over-quarter.
Sales to retail customers in Southern Company's four-state service area decreased 1.2%. The company said that due primarily to milder winter weather than in 2014, residential and commercial energy sales decreased 4.2% and 1.1%, respectively, while industrial energy sales increased 1.9%.
