FirstEnergy Corp. on Monday reported $391 million in net income for the third quarter of 2019, after sustaining a $512 million loss in the same three months of 2018.
That was good for $0.73 in earning per share on a generally accepted accounting basis, versus a $1.02 per-share loss a year ago, according to the Akron, Ohio, power company’s earnings release. Quarterly operating earnings landed at $0.76 per share, down from $0.80 in 2018.
The 2018 figures were impaired by the settlement agreement for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of subsidiaries FirstEnergy Solutions and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co., the release says. That agreement required the parent company to pay $850 million to its bankrupt businesses, Utility Dive reported at the time.
FirstEnergy Solutions is expected to come out of bankruptcy by the end of this year as a separate business under a new name and with new management.
FirstEnergy Corp.’s overall revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $3 billion, roughly equal to the 2018 figure.
For the first nine months of 2019, the company pulled in just over $1 billion in net income, a strong step up from $853 million through the first three quarters of 2018. Earnings per share rose to $1.90 from $1.76. Total revenue was $8.4 billion, a slight drop from $8.6 billion last year.
“Our customer-focused, long-term infrastructure investment program drove solid third quarter financial results,” FirstEnergy President and CEO Chuck Jones said in the release. “Based on our success with these initiatives and our outlook for the future, we are affirming our projection for 6% to 8% compound annual growth from 2018 through 2021.”
The company tightened its earning guidance for the year to $2.50 to $2.60 per share.
FirstEnergy owns power companies in Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, along with over 24,500 miles of transmission lines.
Jones noted FirstEnergy’s deal sealed in October to sell reactor Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania to EnergySolutions. The Salt Lake City-based nuclear services firm would take on all responsibility for decommissioning the reactor, shuttered since its infamous partial meltdown in 1979. It would also own the plant’s decommissioning trust fund, which held $850 million at the end of the first quarter.
Pending approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, the deal is expected to close in the second half of 2020, Jones said. EnergySolutions has not publicly discussed its schedule for decommissioning the reactor, which under FirstEnergy was due to be conducted from 2041 to 2053.
“This would remove any future nuclear decommissioning obligations from FirstEnergy and further simplify our regulated focus,” Jones said.
FirstEnergy Solutions and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2018 and have received approval for their restructuring plan from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
The soon-to-be-former subsidiary owns three nuclear power plants: Davis-Besse and Perry in Ohio and Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania. FirstEnergy Solutions announced plans last year to close all three by October 2021 unless the states stepped in with financial aid. The Ohio Legislature passed a $150 million annual nuclear bailout in July, after which FirstEnergy Solutions said it would not retire its two plants in that state. The law appears to have survived an effort to place a repeal referendum on the November 2020 state election ballot.
Pennsylvania lawmakers have to date resisted passage of any similar legislation to sustain the Beaver Valley facility.
