Despite an 8 percent drop in revenues last fall, the Tennessee Valley Authority began fiscal 2014 by narrowing its first quarter losses.
TVA said today it lost $67 million on revenues $2.38 billion in the three months ended Dec. 31. In the same period a year earlier, TVA lost $245 million on revenues of $2.58 billion.
"Our efforts to keep rates low and reliability high for our customers by working more efficiently helped to offset lower sales and revenues reported in the first quarter of 2014," TVA President Bill Johnson said in a statement today
The federal utility benefited in the first quarter of fiscal 2014 by cheaper fuel, more hydro generation and reduced operating expenses. Overall operating expenses were down 14 percent from a year ago.
In its quarterly earnings report filed today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, TVA said much of the drop in power sales reflects the shut down last May of TVA's biggest direct served customer, U.S. Enrichment Corp., which closed its uranium processing plant in Paducah, Ky.
TVA said it also reduced its outstanding debt in the past year from $26.1 billion at the end of calendar 2012 to $25.5 billion at the end of 2013.