Power company Entergy on Tuesday reported a third-quarter profit of $388.2 million, a massive improvement from the $723 million loss reported in the same period of 2015.
The New Orleans-based company owns and operates power plants that produce about 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy’s Wholesale Commodities (EWC) segment, which includes the company’s nuclear fleet, earned $0.19 per share on an as-reported basis for the quarter, compared to a $5.76 per-share loss in the same time period for 2015. For the year, EWC earned $2.05 per share on an as-reported basis, compared to $0.87 per share for 2015.
The EWC quarter-over-quarter increase resulted largely from decisions to close the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts and the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, which was shuttered at the end of 2014, according to the company’s earnings report, and to sell or close the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York.
The company recorded a year-to-date profit of $1.2 billion, also a massive improvement from the $276.1 million loss recorded for the first three quarters of 2015.
“This was another solid quarter,” Entergy Chairman and CEO Leo Denault said during the company’s earnings call Tuesday. “Both our consolidated earnings and our adjusted earnings for our core business were substantially higher than last year and in line with our growth expectations. Our solid results to date demonstrate our ability to continue to execute on our strategy. With that backdrop, I’ll also note that our financial outlooks now reflect our prudent decision to position the nuclear fleet for sustained operational excellence along with other adjustments.”
Entergy declared third-quarter 2016 earnings per share of $2.16 on an as-reported basis and $2.31 on an operational basis, compared to a third-quarter 2015 as-reported loss of $4.04 per share and operational earnings per share of $1.90.
Denault touched on the $110 sale of FitzPatrick to fellow utility Exelon. That deal was announced Aug. 9, after the New York Public Service Commission approved Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Clean Energy Standard, which is projected to pay upstate nuclear operators up to $8 billion in energy subsidies over the course of the program and stave off closures at FitzPatrick, along with Exelon’s R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant and Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station.
Denault said Entergy is continuing to work through the required regulatory approvals from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the New York Public Service Commission.
“We are targeting the second quarter of 2017 to close the transaction,” Denault said.
However, he said Entergy continues to operate on parallel paths for both selling FitzPatrick and for the plant’s permanent shutdown and decommissioning, as there are no guarantees. On the nuclear fleet as a whole, Denault said Entergy will continue to assess its needs.
“We will continue to be disciplined in our assessment of every remaining asset in our EWC portfolio to execute on our strategy to reduce our merchant footprint,” Denault said.
