FirstEnergy Corp. (Akron, OH) announced that its quarterly profit fell 20 percent due to expenses related to an extended outage at one of its nuclear power plants and milder weather. The company reported first-quarter net income of $174 million, or $0.53 a share, in the first quarter. This compares with net income of $218.5 million, or $0.74 a share, last year, when the company recorded a gain of $0.35 a share from an accounting change.
Excluding costs related to the two-year outage at its Davis-Besse nuclear plant, prompted by leaking boric acid that chewed holes nearly all the way through the reactor vessel's carbon steel lid, the company reported earnings of $0.65 a share. First-quarter revenue fell to $3.18 billion from $3.22 billion a year earlier.
In March, the company said its financial condition could be hurt if it is determined to have legal liability in connection with the massive Aug. 14, 2003, blackout that knocked out power to about 50 million people in the US and Canada. A joint US-Canadian task force last year determined that a key cause was inadequate tree trimming by FirstEnergy near its transmission lines in Ohio.
