Great Plains Energy Sees Third-Quarter Profits Drop 14%, to Reduce Capex in 2016

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Great Plains Energy (NYSE:GXP) (Kansas City, Missouri), the holding company for Kansas City Power & Light Company (KCP&L), reported its earnings dropped 14% to $126.4 million in third-quarter 2015, from $147 million in the year-earlier quarter, due to an increase in operating and maintenance expenses and other factors. Company executives also say they expect capital expenditures to drop in 2016. Industrial Info is tracking 10 active Great Plains power projects worth $443 million. This includes three projects, worth $418 million, which are in an engineering phase; and seven projects, worth $25 million, which are under construction.

Industrial Info is tracking Great Plains' $280 million, 345-kilovolt Sibley-Mullens Creek transmission line project, which involves construction of 103 miles of overhead high voltage line from KCP&L's existing Sibley Substation in Missouri to the proposed Mullen Creek Substation in Maryville, Missouri. Site preparation is under way for the project, which is scheduled for completion in fourth-quarter 2017.

Operating revenues for the quarter topped $781 million, which was roughly flat with the same quarter last year.

Operation and maintenance costs in the third quarter were driven by higher expenses at the Wolf Creek nuclear unit, located at Burlington, Kansas, said Chief Financial Officer Kevin Bryant during the company's earnings conference call. Also, third-quarter 2014 included a tax benefit that did not recur this year, he said.

Bryant said during the company's earnings conference call that he expects capital expenditures to fall off by $180 million next year after peaking this year. At the beginning of this year, Great Plains projected capital expenditures for 2015 to be $790 million, and $595 million for 2016.

The company's utility capital expenses for the first three quarters of 2015 totaled $520.9 million, compared with $553.3 million for the same period last year.

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