NextEra Wholesale Supply Business Hurt by Customer Migration

NextEra Energy Resources reported adjusted earnings of $189 million for the first quarter of 2011, compared with $196 million in the first quarter of 2010.

On a GAAP basis, Energy Resources net income was $65 million, versus $367 million a year ago. The GAAP earnings include the mark-to-market effects of non-qualifying hedges and the net effect of other than temporary impairments (OTTI) on certain investments.

NextEra Energy Resources' customer supply business and proprietary power and gas trading earnings declined by about $30 million versus the year-ago quarter. The decline was due, in large part, to a negative $12 million impact from higher-than-anticipated customer migration in the wholesale full requirements business. The absence of a prior-year gain on a large wholesale contract sale also weighed current-year earnings.

NextEra said that it is exploring the potential sale of five of natural gas-fired assets, including Blythe, a 507-megawatt plant in California; RIEC [Rhode Island Energy Center], a 550-megawatt plant in Rhode Island; and Doswell, an 879-megawatt plant in Virginia. The two other plants are not in organized markets.

NextEra Energy has not yet filed a 10-Q.