Dive Brief:
- PPL Corp.'s Q2 2014 profit fell 43% to $229 million, down from Q2 2013’s $405 million, due largely to a 17% loss in operating revenue to $2.87 billion produced by a 58% fall in PPL’s unregulated wholesale energy revenue.
- Excluding special item charges like the $128 million from the cost of the spinoff of PPL Energy Supply, ongoing Q2 2014 operating earnings increased to $357 million from Q2 2013’s $311 million, bringing first half 2014 ongoing earnings to $880 million, up from Q2 2013’s $765 million.
- Strong performance in its regulated utilities and stronger margins in the competitive energy supply business generated “very solid results” for the first half of 2014, according to CEO/President/Chair William H. Spence, with total earnings in this year's first half from ongoing operations up 15%, or $115 million, over Q2 2013.
Dive Insight:
Based on strong first half 2014 performance from its competitive energy supply business, PPL increased its forecasted 2014 earnings guidance from as much as $2.30 per share to as much as $2.40 per share.
Spence said PPL is on track to complete the merger PPL Energy Supply and Riverstone Holdings to form Talen Energy Corp by Q2 2015, and the new entity will be the third biggest U.S. investor-owned independent power producer in terms of megawatts of generating capacity.
PPL also announced plans for a 725-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line from western Pennsylvania into New York and New Jersey and south into Maryland, which it hopes to start in 2017 and complete in the 2023 to 2025 period at a cost of $4 billion to $6 billion.
