Dive Brief:
- CenterPoint Energy today reported earnings of $107 million for Q2 2014, up over last year's $100 million loss over the same period. Last year's loss for Q2 was due to $235 million in one-time expenses incurred in the formation of CenterPoint's midstream partnership.
- CenterPoint's electric transmission and distribution arm reported $145 million in operating earnings for Q2 2014, down from last year's $165 over the same period.
- CenterPoint's regulated electric utilities saw higher revenues from customer growth, but "this increase was more than offset by milder weather, higher operating and maintenance expenses and higher depreciation expense," according to a release.
Dive Insight:
Unlike many utilities struggling with flat or shrinking electricity sales, CenterPoint's utility service territories are located in hot spots of economic growth. CenterPoint's utility subsidiary Houston Electric added over 48,000 customer in the last year and the company believes the 2% annual customer growth rate will continue.
Houston Electric's weather-normalized residential sales grew 2% over the last 12 months ending June 30, but that's due to customer growth, not an increase in per customer energy usage. Per customer electricity use "has been more or less flat," Tracy Bridge, president of CenterPoint's electric division, said on an earnings call with analysts.
Meanwhile, CenterPoint continues to be at the center of the debate over the controversial $600 million Houston Import Project, which aims to build a new transmission line to bring capacity to the load center of Houston. "We believe that as owners of the end points of the project, we are entitled by ERCOT protocols to own the entire project," Bridge said.
A hearing before the Texas Public Utility Commission is scheduled to take place on August 21 and CenterPoint is "hopeful for a third quarter decision," Bridge said.