nuclear-news

Rising costs result in profit drop for Entergy’s nuclear business

Entergy Profit Falls as Costs Dent Margins , WSJ.com, 9 Feb 2011, By NAUREEN S. MALIKEntergy Corp.’s fourth-quarter profit dropped 27% as higher costs outpaced revenue growth tied to higher volume. The operator of the second-largest nuclear-power fleet in the U.S. generates nearly two-thirds of its profits from its wholesale-power business, with the rest coming from Southern utilities that serve 2.7 million people. The company backed away from long-held plans to spin off five of its nuclear plants last April because of credit-market turmoil and a regulatory pushback…… unplanned outages at its nuclear plants north of New York City and in Vermont caused merchant power sales to plunge while higher costs pressured utility operations, causing profits to fall shy of Wall Street estimates.

Wholesale-power prices, meanwhile, continue to face pressure from relatively low natural-gas prices, a fuel used to generate electricity that is used as a barometer for the cost of adding marginal capacity…………Meanwhile, the company said it plans to spend $7.4 billion in 2011 through 2013, including $2.9 billion of maintenance capital. The rest of the money will be used to upgrade various power plants, pursue nuclear-plant-license renewals and invest in transmission and distribution projects……

February 10, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA