Group To Cut Spending, Wind Power Growth
Date: 28-Oct-08
Country: US
The company said it would cut 2009 planned capital expenditures nearly 25 percent to $5.3 billion and add 1,100 megawatts in new wind-power generation rather than the 1,500 megawatts it originally had planned.
"Current planning allows the flexibility to quickly ramp plans up or down as credit and market conditions change," the company said, adding that it could also seek to buy assets.
So far in 2008, FPL has put 499 megawatts of new wind capacity into service and is on track to reach a total of 1,300 megawatts for the year, about equivalent to one large coal-fired power plant.
FPL reported third-quarter earnings rose 45 percent to $774 million, or $1.92 per share on revenue of $5.39 billion. It now expects full-year adjusted earnings per share to be at the low end of the $3.83 to $3.85 per share range previously forecast, but reaffirmed its forecasts for 2009 and 2010.
Excluding extraordinary gains, earnings were $1.25 per share in the third quarter, lagging analysts' average forecast of $1.35 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.
Juno Beach, Florida-based FPL, which owns the utility Florida Power & Light and a wholesale power generation business, said it had maintained a strong balance sheet and had used only a small portion of its $6.75 billion existing credit facility.
FPL Energy, the company's wholesale power business, is the largest owner and operator of wind power in the United States with nearly 5,100 megawatts of wind generation at more than 50 sites in 16 states.
The company has said it hopes to add 8,000 to 10,000 megawatts to its portfolio through 2012.
FPL's shares, which have shed 36 percent so far this year, were unchanged from Friday's close at $43.20 apiece in premarket trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Matt Daily; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)
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27Oct08 12:53 GMT
Symbols: de;FP3 de;FP3F de;FP3X us;FPL
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REUTERS
Indonesia's Pertamina Says Plans To Lift Biodiesel Sales
[JDKSSDJ]
JAKARTA - Indonesia's state oil firm Pertamina will increase the sale of palm-based biodiesel in a move to cut energy subsidies, a company official said on Monday.
In September, Indonesia issued a ministerial decree making the use of biofuel mandatory with effect from 2009.
The resource-rich nation has been pushing for the use of biofuels to cut the use of costly petroleum products and to help ensure the survival of its biodiesel industry.
"More pump stations in Indonesia will have biodiesel from November 1, with a biodiesel blend of 5 percent," Hanung Budya, Pertamina's marketing deputy director, told reporters.
He said Pertamina will expand the sale of biodiesel to industry and to the transportation sector, which currently use a blend of 5 percent palm-based biodiesel and 95 percent diesel oil.
"We are considering using a 10 percent biodiesel blend possibly by the end of next year, depending on the availability of the palm feedstock," he said.
Pertamina has been selling biodiesel since 2006, but has varied the blend in its biodiesel fuel in response to volatile palm oil prices and due to the lack of a mandatory policy.
Indonesia's combined capacity for biofuel using palm oil as a feedstock is 2 million kilo litres per year, but it is running at 20 percent of capacity, data from the national biofuel development team shows.
With the introduction of the mandatory policy, biodiesel capacity would rise to 5 million kilo litres a year by 2010, the government said recently, although it could also push up the price for palm oil.
(Reporting by Muklis Ali, Editing by Sara Webb)