Dive Brief:
- American Electric Power reported second quarter earnings of $430 million, or 88 cents per share, compared with $390 million in the same period last year.
- The generator's earnings beat out street expectations, though revenues of $3.9 billion fell about $300 million short predictions, Zacks reports.
Dive Insight:
AEP, with almost 32,000 MW of capacity and more than 40,000 miles of transmission lines, saw load growth in virtually every customer segment, the company said in its second quarter earnings report.
“We saw positive load growth across all major retail customer classes in the second quarter of 2015,”
AEP Chairman, President and CEO Nicholas Akins said in a statement. “Although the level of industrial sales growth has moderated recently, we continue to see robust industrial sales growth from shale gas activity, including pipeline transportation infrastructure being built to support the Marcellus, Utica and Texas shale operations.”
“Our ongoing strategy of investing in our regulated business for the benefit of our customers while managing our costs continues to deliver positive earnings results,” Akins said. The company added about $200 million in transmission investment to its capital plan this year.
AEP's GAAP and operating earnings for the second quarter increased about 10% over the same period last year, and Akins said the first half performance has allowed the company to both increase and narrow its earnings guidance for the year. Full-year 2015 earnings are expected to be between $3.50 and $3.65 per share.
AEP said operating earnings from vertically integrated utilities increased $53 million in the second quarter, largely on rate impacts and lower operations and maintenance costs. Transmission and distribution utilities' earnings fell about $12 million because of a reduction in normalized margins.
AEP Transmission Holdco saw earnings go up $18 million, while the generation and marketing segment reported a $17 million decrease.