CenterPoint Energy’s third-quarter earnings surged more than 57% thanks to record electricity usage this summer, the company reported Thursday. Profits were $241 million ($0.47/share) for the quarter, compared with $153 million ($0.35/share) a year earlier.
CenterPoint’s performance exceeded Zacks Investment Research’s projection of 43 cents/share.
The company’s Houston transmission and distribution utility reported operating income of $269 million for the quarter, up from $227 million in 2018’s third quarter.
“Our utilities delivered another strong performance this quarter, driven by solid customer growth, disciplined cost management and favorable weather,” CEO Scott Prochazka said.
The company also reported a $77 million distribution from Enable Midstream Partners, its gas gathering and processing partnership with OGE Energy. Enable is forecasting a distribution of $385 million to $445 million in 2020, bringing CenterPoint’s cash distribution since 2013 to $1.8 billion. (See related story, OGE Earnings Surge, Beat Expectations.)
Tempering the company’s positive news was a recent Texas administrative law judge’s proposed decision that a requested Houston electric rate increase of $154.6 million be reduced to $2.6 million, or 0.11% of its present rate base. The docket is on the Texas Public Utility Commission’s agenda for its meeting this Thursday (49421).
Prochazka told financial analysts during the earnings call that the decision was “clearly not a good outcome.”
“We’ve assumed we would at least be recovering the additional investment, the billion dollars plus that we have already put in service that are not yet in rates. If we recover just that piece, it would be an increase in rates,” he said. “The process isn’t over, and the commissioners haven’t yet opined on this. We hope the commissioners will have a different view of it.”
— Tom Kleckner
