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SCANA Corp. earnings up 3% for 2007
By Molly Parker
Staff Writer
Columbia-based utility SCANA Corp. reported $320 million in earnings for 2007, an increase of about 3% over a “disappointing” 2006, said Jimmy Addison, the company’s senior vice president and chief financial officer.
Exceeding expectations, fourth-quarter profits were up more than 35%. SCANA posted earnings of $88 million, or 75 cents per share in the last three months of the year, compared to $65 million, or 57 cents per share during the same time in 2006.
Addison attributed the growth largely to increased sales of electricity and natural gas driven by the addition of new customers and increased wholesale sales.
The utility is poised for “very good growth in 2008,” he said.
Reported earnings for South Carolina Electric & Gas, SCANA’s principal subsidiary, were up almost 5% in 2007. SCE&G posted earnings of $245 million, or $2.10 per share, compared to $234 million, or $2.02 per share in 2006.
During a conference call, investors peppered SCANA officials with queries about the progress of the company’s plans to have a new nuclear reactor online by 2016 through a joint partnership with state-owned utility Santee Cooper.
Higher-than-projected cost estimates, Addison said, have forced the utilities to delay their application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They had planned to file the application early this year.
“It’s a serious cooperative negotiation process,” he said, noting the utility hopes to reach a final decision regarding the application by this summer if not sooner.
“We’re only one side of that discussion, and I can’t really be sure on that,” he said.
Noting that prices were “way, way higher” than original projections, Santee Cooper President and CEO Lonnie Carter recently said he would ask his board to make a policy decision about the nuclear proposal sometime in the next few months.
Even with the postponement, Addison said the plant could still be online sometime in 2016.
Addison said the price has essentially doubled since the time when the utilities first began to consider building the plant. The utilities want to build a 1,100-megawatt nuclear unit next to their existing jointly-owned V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville.
Most of the upsurge is commodity-driven as prices for concrete, steel and copper are on the rise, cost increases that would impact any new generation project, said Stephen Byrne, SCANA’s senior vice president of generation, nuclear and fossil hydro.
The various nuclear vendors also are anticipating rising costs “for attracting labor and keeping labor on the project,” Byrne said.
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