Good investment returns on the decommissioning trust funds for the Pilgrim and Indian Point nuclear power complexes helped Entergy improve its financial pictures for 2019.
However, the Pilgrim fund is no longer part of Entergy’s corporate finances, Chairman and CEO Leo Denault noted in a Wednesday teleconference with analysts on the New Orleans-based power company’s latest earnings.
Last summer, Entergy sold the retired single-reactor nuclear plant on Cape Cod, Mass., to Holtec International. The New Jersey-based energy technology company now owns the decommissioning trust, along with all responsibility for decommissioning, spent fuel management, and site restoration on the property.
Similarly, Entergy wants Holtec to assume ownership of Indian Point’s three reactors and their decommissioning trusts in 2021. At the Buchanan, N.Y., site, Entergy plans to retire reactor Unit 2 by April 30, 2020, and Unit 3 by April 30, 2021. Reactor Unit 1 has been closed since 1974.
“2019 was a very successful year for our company,” Denault said. While Entergy discussed its fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 finances on Wednesday, it does not expect to submit its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission until March 2.
Indian Point’s decommissioning trust funds are valued at a total of $2.1 billion for a projected $2.3 billion decommissioning project. Pilgrim’s trust fund has slightly more than $1 billion for a $1.134 billion project.
In company-wide figures for the quarter, Entergy posted as-reported earnings of $385 million, compared to a loss of $66 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. For the latest reporting period, that translated to $1.92 per share, compared to a loss of $0.36 per share the year before.
For the entire year of 2019, Entergy posted as-reported earnings of $1.241 billion and $6.30 per share, compared to 2018 figures of $849 million and $4.63 per share.
The Entergy Wholesale Commodities subsidiary — which has owned and operated the company’s nuclear reactor sites – tallied as-reported earnings of $217 million at $1.08 per share in the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to a loss of $373 million with an accompanying loss of $2.04 per share in the same quarter of 2018. For all of 2019, the subsidiary posted $147 million in earnings, compared to a loss of $343 million in 2018. That translated to $0.74 per share in 2019 versus a loss of $1.87 per share in 2018.
With the anticipated sale of Indian Point, the Palisades Power Plant in Michigan would be Wholesale Commodities’ last nuclear asset. That facility is due for closure in 2022 and sale to Holtec.
