SCE&G’s second-quarter earnings up $12M

While utility giant SCANA Corp. on Thursday reported that second-quarter earnings are up $3 million from a year ago, its SCE&G subsidiary’s earnings jumped $12 million, in part because of rate increases related to the financing costs building new nuclear reactors.

SCANA reported $99 million in earnings during its second quarter in 2015, compared with $96 million the same quarter of last year. That translates to 1-cent per share more, or 69 cents, compared to 2014’s 68 cents, the utility announced in a news release.

But South Carolina Electric & Gas Co.’s second quarter produced $111 million in earnings – or 77 cents per share – compared with $99 million in the second quarter of 2014, the company’s figures show. Earnings per share at this time last year were 70 cents. SCE&G is SCANA’s principal subsidiary.

SCANA’s stock was up 23 cents late Thursday from its closing price on Wednesday.

The company attributed the bulk of SCE&G’s financial performance to rate increases and customer growth. Unusual weather boosted earnings by 6 cents per share during the quarter, according to the news release.

SCE&G has filed for a rate increase that would start this fall for 695,000 customers. It would become the seventh hike related to the financing costs of the two reactors under construction at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in Fairfield County.

The utility company experiencing the largest increases in number of new customers since 2008, Jimmy Addison, SCANA’s chief financial officer, told The State newspaper.

In the first six months of 2015, SCE&G has added 6,000 electricity customers in South Carolina – all but 10 percent of which are residential customers – and 4,000 new natural gas customers, Addison and company officials said.