Mild weather and lower fuel costs likely saved consumers some money on their utility bills in recent months.
But it meant Atlanta-based Southern Co. reported lower third-quarter profits and revenue than expected.
Still, net income for the quarter rose to $976 million, or $1.11 a share, compared with $916 million, or $1.07 a share, during the same time a year ago. Operating revenue for the quarter, ending Sept. 30, fell 7 percent to $5.05 billion, compared with $5.43 billion a year ago.
“The most significant story of earnings this year so far has been weather,” Tom Fanning, Southern’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Third-quarter revenue also dropped because the amount that Southern pays for fuel — including natural gas and coal — was lower, the company said Monday. Its utilities, which include Georgia Power, cannot profit from lower fuel costs and must pass those savings on to customers.
Georgia Power customers, in fact, saw their bills drop an average $8 a month starting in June because of lower fuel costs. The utility’s net income was $525 million, up from $520 million. Operating revenue fell 10.4 percent, however, to $2.5 billion, from $2.8 billion during the same period a year ago.
Southern was one of several companies that postponed an earnings release after Hurricane Sandy caused an unplanned shutdown of financial markets. Monday’s report follows a $900 million lawsuit filed last Thursday against Georgia Power and the other utility groups building two nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle.
The lawsuit, filed by the project’s main contractors, is the third dispute between the parties. Georgia Power maintains it is not responsible for the issues alleged in the lawsuit or the costs associated with them.
“We don’t believe that it will have any material impact on the progress of the project,” Fanning said. Though the lawsuit indicates that months of negotiations over part of the project’s costs have failed, Fanning said the commercial dispute is “a normal part of doing business.”
Georgia Power customers are paying for the company’s $6.1 billion share of the $14 billion project, which received a permit to start heavy construction earlier this year. The utility expects to start pouring concrete for the reactors by the end of the year, Fanning said.
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