San Diego-based Sempra Energy reported Thursday that the company had second quarter earnings of $269 million, or $1.08 per diluted share, compared to $245 million, or 98 cents per diluted share, in the same time period last year.

Sempra Energy

Sempra’s earnings in the first six months of 2014 was $516 million, or $2.07 per diluted share, compared with earnings of $423 million, or $1.70 per diluted share, during the first six months of 2013.

San Diego Gas & Electric recorded an additional $9 million after-tax charge in this year’s first quarter for the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, according to Sempra. Otherwise, the parent company of SDG&E and Southern California Gas Co. would have made $525 million, or $2.11 per diluted share.

“Our financial performance in the second quarter and the first half of 2014 was strong and consistent with our full-year earnings guidance,” said Debra Reed, Sempra’s CEO. “Additionally, we have made significant progress on several of our key projects.”

SDG&E’s earnings were $123 million in the second quarter of this year, up from $65 million last year, according to Sempra. The increase was primarily based on higher California Public Utilities Commission base margins and improved operating results.

The local utility company’s earnings for the first six months of the year was $222 million, up from $156 million in 2013.

Here’s the earnings breakdown across Sempra holdings:

  • SoCalGas earnings in the second quarter were $80 million, down from $118 million in last year’s second quarter, which included retroactive earnings from a general rate case decision, according to Sempra. The utility’s first half of 2014 earnings were $158 million, down from $164 million last year.
  • Sempra Mexico earned more money in the second quarter of this year, $34 million, compared to the same period last year, $26 million, due mostly to regulatory earnings from construction projects.
  • Sempra Renewables made $46 million in the first six months of the year, compared with $19 million in the first quarter 2013, due primarily to the sale of a 50 percent interest in a solar energy project.
  • Sempra South American Utilities made more money, with earnings of $42 million in the second quarter 2014 compared with $34 million in the same time period in 2013.
  • Earnings for Sempra Natural Gas were $4 million in the second quarter of 2014 compared with $9 million in the first quarter of 2013.

– City News Service