Dive Brief:
- Detroit-based utility DTE Energy reported Q2 earnings of $124 million, up from $105 million for the same period in 2013.
- Year-to-date earnings were $450 million in 2014, up from $339 million last year.
- DTE also reported the first stage of transferring Detroit Public Lighting Dept. customers to DTE started in July and was progressing without a hitch, marking the start of a multi-year project to merge the utilities' services.
Dive Insight:
DTE noted that "a large portion" of its growth opportunities lie in its gas and electric utilities, "as our utility investment levels are more than double depreciation levels," Peter Oleksiak, SVP and CFO at DTE Energy, said on the utility's Q2 earnings call. Electric utility investments will be "driven by environmental spend in the near-term," he said, "and renewal of our generation fleet in the longer term."
DTE expects to invest "multiple billions" in new generation by 2030, Oleksiak added. "We see Michigan's energy policy starting to take shape in 2015, with new comprehensive legislation, with flexibility in these energy policies to comply with the recent carbon emissions plans released by the EPA," he said. "For DTE, our plan for a natural replacement of a good portion of our coal fleet with gas-fired plants has been in the works for the last few years, and this fits in with the EPA regulations."