TVA says warm winter reason for less revenue

The nation?s largest public utility said operating revenues are about $95 million lower than planned for the first quarter and net income is expected to be $46 million below budget.

Knoxville-based TVA won?t release a full earnings report for the three-month period ending Dec. 31 for another few weeks. But TVA president and CEO Tom Kilgore briefed TVA directors on the financial outlook during a meeting in Memphis on Thursday.

The revenue drop, he said, was ?because of the weather, principally.?

He noted the number of ?heating degree days? ? when the average temperature falls below 65 degrees ? is about 7 percent below normal in the first quarter. And they are down nearly 14 percent in January, he said.

?But I can say for the last week, and we hope going forward, the cold spell is actually doing better,? said Kilgore, joking that ?wet and cold or wet and hot, that is TVA weather? because it means power sales will rise and production costs will fall from hydroelectric generation.

TVA?s weather forecasters predicted January would be slightly warmer than normal, but are expecting February and March to be slightly colder than usual, which could be a plus for power sales.