Northeast Utilities had a $58 million profit in the first quarter, on $1.5 billion in revenue, down from $1.7 billion a year ago.
Northeast Utilities is based in Berlin and owns Connecticut Light & Power Co., which provides electricity in many parts of Fairfield County. CL&P has launched a $1.4 million project in Westport to replace poles and install four miles of wire that can resist the impact of tree branches.
NU provided an update on several large construction projects for new transmission lines. A new 345-kilovolt line is now 79 percent complete stretching 70 miles between Norwalk and Middletown. The $1 billion project is several months ahead of schedule and is now slated to be completed in early 2009.
A 115-kilovolt line between Norwalk and Stamford is at the same stage of completion, and should be activated by year end.
The company also expects to energize this year an undersea cable connecting Norwalk and Long Island, N.Y.
NU plans to file state siting applications later this year for a proposed 345-kilovolt cable connecting Connecticut and Rhode Island.
NU”™s earnings were impacted by $30 million it paid to settle a lawsuit with New York-based Consolidated Edison Inc., following a failed merger between the two companies.
Six weeks ago, NU asked for regulatory permission to examine ways to draw more power from northern New England and Canada to support the grid in southern New England. In its annual forecast of summer power demand, ISO New England indicated the regional electricity grid should be able to respond to surges in electricity demand, even during an extended heat wave.
Early this month, Maine”™s governor signed a law that could pave the way for a potential Pine Tree State withdrawal from ISO New England, a Holyoke, Mass., organization that oversees the New England power markets. Maine legislators say the state is paying an unfairly high share of the region”™s energy costs.
