Consolidated Edison’s profits fell nearly 12% in the first quarter, with the utility attributing the decline to the effects of the economic shutdown and unusually warm weather in New York.

The company on Thursday reported net income of $375 million ($1.13/share), compared to $424 million ($1.39/share) during the same period in 2019.

During a call with analysts, CEO John McAvoy pointed to the direct impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the region the utility serves.

“During this pandemic, all of us at Con Edison remain solely focused on the health and safety of our employees and our customers while continuing to provide the highest level of reliable service,” CEO John McAvoy said.

“Like many Americans, we have lost family, friends and colleagues to this virus,” McAvoy said. “Throughout, I am immensely proud of our dedicated workforce who have risen to the challenge and to our unions’ leadership in working with us. We must and will summon all the compassion, grace and strength needed to provide for the recovery.”

The company’s earnings forecast assumes the restart of some paused commercial activities by early June, with a phased process that continues through the third quarter.

C&I Volume and Revenue Drop

Con Ed mobilized a pandemic planning team in January and an incident command system structure on March 16, the company said in its earnings presentation.

With approximately 8,000 of its 14,000 employees working from home or remotely, Con Ed illustrates the truth of recent analysis that predicts the economic fallout from the pandemic will weigh most heavily on utilities most dependent on commercial and industrial load. (See Researchers: Pandemic to Sting C&I-dependent Utilities.)

The company’s main revenue driver, Consolidated Edison Company of New York (CECONY), showed electric delivery volume for March 16 to April 30 down 19% in the commercial segment and 17% in the industrial segment. Revenues in both categories in the same period were each down 16%.

CECONY residential electricity deliveries were up 11% in the period to April 30 and revenues up 7%.

Con Ed is supporting the community in various ways during the pandemic. It deployed a 1-MW generator to support the field hospital set up at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook, and expanded grid service or provided engineering services for other emergency field hospitals throughout the city and Westchester County. The company also is making 40,000 face shields in its machine shop for health care workers.