Dominion Retail Sees Stabilization, Growth in Retail Market from Competitors' Coal Plant Retirements

Dominion Retail expects the currently "very, very competitive" retail market climate to stabilize and allow for growth with the looming coal plant retirements owned by various competitors in the space.

During an earnings all yesterday, Paul Koonce, executive vice president of Dominion Resources, said of the company's competitive retail business that, "I think as we see these coal plant retirements, I think you have some large merchant fleets that are participating in the aggregation business and I think as you have coal plant retirements, we think this business will stabilize and grow for us."

Dominion Retail reported EBIT of $5 million for the third quarter of 2013, versus the year-ago loss on an EBIT basis of $8 million. Third quarter earnings were at the lower end of the provided guidance, however, due to customer attrition and lower volumes for POLR customers.

Specifically, Dominion Retail said that its volumes declined in the quarter because the prior-year volumes reflected a small number of POLR contracts which the company did not seek to renew because the contracts were not profitable to serve.

Average Dominion Retail customer count for the quarter was 2.090 million for the three months ended September 30, 2013, versus an average of 2.109 million for the three months ended June 30, 2013, and an average of 2.132 million for the three months ended September 30, 2012

Dominion Retail average customer count by customer type was as follows for each of the three-month periods ending on the date noted:

                9/30/13      6/30/13      9/30/12
Electric        666,762      657,113      699,465
Gas             515,388      547,037      552,725
Products &      907,592      904,841      879,334
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