Retail Supplier Sees Nearly 50% Jump in Net Electric Customer Churn During Quarter Ending June 30

Net customer churn in Washington Gas Energy Services' electric customer base spiked by nearly 50% during the three months ended June 30, 2014.

As of June 30, 2014, WGES was serving 169,600 electric accounts, versus 181,000 as of March 31, 2014, and 178,200 a year ago.

The net churn of 11,400 electric accounts from March 31, 2014 to June 30, 2014 is 43% higher than the net customer churn of 8,000 accounts from December 31, 2013 to Mach 31, 2014.

WGES's natural gas customer count as of June 30, 2014 was 161,300, versus 165,000 as of March 31, 2014, and 168,600 a year ago.

Total WGES customer count was 330,900 as of June 30, 2014, versus 346,000 as of March 31, 2014, and 346,800 a year ago.

WGL Holdings' retail energy marketing segment reported non-GAAP operating earnings of $2.0 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2014, compared to non-GAAP operating earnings of $6.2 million for the same quarter of the prior fiscal year. The decrease reflects lower realized electric margins due to fluctuations in commodity prices and higher capacity and ancillary charges from PJM. Partially offsetting the electric margins were higher natural gas margins. Realized natural gas margins increased due to higher margins on portfolio optimization activity and higher sales volumes related to spot sales to interruptible customers.

WGES electric sales were 2,790 GWh for the three months ended June 30, 2014, versus 3,013 GWh in the year-ago quarter.

WGES natural gas sales were 116 million therms for the three months ended June 30, 2014, versus 99 million therms in the year-ago quarter.