Increased fuel costs and higher prices for wholesale energy at Tucson Electric Power (TEP), UniSource Energy’s principal subsidiary, contributed to the year-over-year decline in earnings.
UniSource Energy Services, which provides gas and electric service in northern and southern Arizona through subsidiaries UNS Gas and UNS Electric, reported earnings of $7 million in the first quarter of 2008, compared to $5 million during the first quarter of 2007.
TEP reported a net loss for the first quarter of 2008 of $9 million, compared with net income of $1 million in the same period of 2007.
UNS Gas reported net income of $6 million in the first quarter of 2008, compared to $5 million during the same quarter of 2007. UNS Electric reported earnings of less than $1 million for the first quarters of both 2008 and 2007.
James Pignatelli, chairman, president and CEO of UniSource Energy and TEP, said: Several of our coal plants experienced outages during the first quarter, leaving us to rely more heavily on natural gas-fired generation and market power at a time when energy prices were high.
