Avista Corp., of Spokane, reported today third-quarter net income of $11.4 million, or 19 cents a diluted share, compared with income of $5.8 million, or 10 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
Scott L. Morris, chairman, president, and CEO of Avista, said in a press release, "Our third-quarter results were above our expectations, and we continue to experience a good year at both the utility and Ecova."
Morris said utility earnings exceeded expectations during the third quarter due to warmer weather and lower-than-expected operating costs.However, increased power supply costs, due primarily to an outage at the Colstrip generating facility and higher natural gas fuel prices, are tempering utility earnings for the rest of the year.
Ecova, which is Avista's utility-bill management subsidiary, had an increase in volume of expense- and data-management services during the quarter, as well as demand for new services.
Earlier this week, Avista announced that it has agreed to acquire Alaska Energy & Resources Co., a privately held Juneau, Alaska-based company that operates Alaska Electric Light & Power Co., in a transaction valued at $170 million. That transaction is scheduled to be completed July 1, 2014.