The warmest and wettest December in a half century proved costly for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which sold 8 percent less electricity at the end of 2015 than it did a year ago and lost $37 million in the first quarter of the utility’s fiscal year as a result.
“TVA typically budgets for a small loss in the first three months of its fiscal year.” TVA President Bill Johnson said during an earnings call with industry analysts Wednesday.
But the drop in power sales was especially acute during the first quarter of fiscal 2016, especially since colder-than-normal weather boosted power usage from electric heaters in the same time a year earlier.
The federal utility reported a net loss of $37 million on revenues of $2.28 billion in the final three months of calendar 2015. In the same period a year earlier, TVA earned $81 million on revenues of $2.41 billion.
Despite a $56 million drop in fuel costs, TVA’s operating expenses were up $52 million over the previous year due to an additional nuclear plant refueling outage and extra expenses for repairs at the Boone Dam.