Avista Corp., of Spokane, reported this morning second-quarter net income of $25.7 million, or 43 cents a diluted share, up from earnings of $18.1 million, or 31 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
Scott Morris, Avista's chairman, president, and CEO, said in a press release that both the utility and the company's energy-management subsidiary Ecova performed above expectations.
Utility earnings benefited from lower operating costs due to timing of expenses and warm weather during the second quarter, among other factors, Morris said. However, a generator failure at a Montana coal plant, in which Avista is part owner, will force the company to buy about $12 million in replacement energy, tempering the company's expectations for utility earnings for the rest of 2013, Morris said.
Ecova's performance, he said, "is due to increased revenues as a result of demand for new services and increased volume in expense and data-management services and energy-management services."
Based on second-quarter results, Avista said it still expects its consolidated earnings for the year to be in the range of $1.70 to $1.90 per diluted share.