BC Hydro announces second quarter results
VANCOUVER – BC Hydro today announced its second quarter financial results for fiscal 2010, reporting a consolidated net income of $115 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2009, which was $7 million lower than the previous year.
"The global economic recession and strengthening of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar impacted our results for this quarter," said Bob Elton, BC Hydro President and CEO. The downturn resulted in lower energy trading results, and weakness in global demand for pulp and newsprint resulted in lower demand for electricity from the industrial sector, offset by lower prices for energy purchases compared with the same period in the previous year.
Elton added that BC Hydro remains committed to its long term capital improvement plan of upgrading aging assets, improving system reliability, and expanding generation and distribution capacity.
Key financial highlights include:
- Domestic revenues were $683 million – $60 million higher than the previous year, as a result of higher average customer rates, partially offset by decreased revenue from the large industrial sector due to closures of pulp and paper operations in the forestry sector.
- Energy trading results were significantly lower than in the previous year due to falling prices, lower price spreads between the Northwest and California and between B.C. and Alberta and weakening of the U.S. dollar.
- BC Hydro experienced a 17 per cent decrease in hydro generation over the same period in the prior year due to lower water inflows caused by lower winter snow-pack levels and very low precipitation in the spring and summer seasons. BC Hydro was required to increase purchases of energy from the market to meet domestic requirements, although the full impact of the reduced generation was lessened by reduced load demand from large industrial customers impacted by the economic downturn and by market energy prices that were significantly lower in the current year.
- Capital expenditures of $407 million in the quarter were $55 million higher than the previous year, primarily due to increased spending on the replacement and expansion of generation facilities and on distribution system improvements and expansion.
Contact:
Dag Sharman
Media Relations
Phone: 604 623 4022