Eversource takes hit on Northern Pass
Charges associated with transmission line project hurt energy company
HARTFORD — Eversource Energy’s thirdquarter earnings were up by 10.1 percent compared to the same period last year, company officials said Tuesday, but the utility’s ninemonth earnings took a hit because of charges associated with efforts to build the Northern Pass transmission line through New Hampshire.
Eversource made $318.9 million or 98 cents per share during the threemonth period that ended Sept. 30. The utility company made $289.4 million or 91 cents per share during the same period in
2018.
Over the first nine months of this year, Eversource made $659 million or $2.05 per share, compared to $801.7 million or $2.52 per share during the same period in
2018. The results for the first nine months of this year included a
$204.4 million or 64 cents per share charge against earnings for what company officials termed “aftertax impairment” associated with Eversource Energy’s investment in the proposed 192mile Northern Pass transmission line in New Hampshire.
Without the inclusion of the chargeoff, Eversource made
$863.4 million or $2.69 per share during the first nine months of this year.
Jeff Kotkin, a spokesman for the company, said the charge represents money that Eversource had put into trying to get the 192mile transmission line built in New Hampshire. The company abandoned those efforts in late July after the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld a decision by regulators in that state rejecting Eversource’s plans to bring hydropower from Quebec for use in New England’s regional power grid.
“We had put money into engineering and the permitting process (for Northern Pass) and this charge reflects the inability to recoup that investment,” Kotkin said.
The earnings announcement came following the close of U.S. financial markets on Tuesday. The company’s stock, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ES, finished Tuesday with a closing price of $81.08, down 36 cents from Monday’s close.