US energy company NextEra Energy posted adjusted earnings of US$1.968 billion in its Q2 2024 financial results, a roughly 9% increase compared with the same period in 2023.
NextEra said this corresponds to US$0.96 per share. The company also provided results for its two major subsidiaries, NextEra Energy Resources – a US renewable energy project developer – and Florida Power & Light (FPL), the country’s largest electricity utility.
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FPL posted adjusted earnings of US$1.232 billion, an increase of around US$80 million—or three cents per share—in Q2 2023. NextEra said that the growth was due to “continued investment in the business.” The utility’s net revenues were in excess of US$4.3 billion, whilst capital expenditure was US$2.1 billion; this is expected to reach up to US$8.8 billion over the course of 2024.
In the company’s earnings call, CFO of Nextera Energy, Brian Bolster, said: “For the second quarter of 2024, FPL increased earnings per share by 3 cents year-over-year. The principal driver of this performance was FPL’s regulatory capital employed growth of approximately 10.7% year-over-year. We continue to expect FPL to realise roughly 10% average annual growth in regulatory capital employed over our current rate agreement’s four-year term, which runs through 2025.”
In 2022, NextEra announced its “Real Zero” decarbonisation target, in which FLP is positioned to play a lead role. By 2045, the company said that it intends to entirely decarbonise its energy generation mix, largely through a massive buildout of solar PV and energy storage capacity at FLP.
From an investment perspective, this moves in tandem with a number of other major US utilities that have begun to de-risk their operations by consolidating them in certain technologies and markets. Both Duke Energy and American Electric Power (AEP) announced moves to focus on their regulated markets (where a utility has a monopoly on power generation and distribution), which PV Tech Premium heard would make them more attractive to investors.
NextEra Energy Resources has ‘second-best’ quarter
The company’s project developer subsidiary posted a net income of US$552 million in Q2 2024 and an adjusted income of US$865 million. This compares with a net income of US$1.4 billion and an adjusted income of US$781 million in Q2 2023.
NextEra Energy said the company added 3GW of renewable energy generation and storage capacity to its backlog, 860MW of which come from agreements with Google to meet its data centre power demand. Over the quarter, the company placed 1.6GW of projects into operations.
Last month, NextEra Energy Resources signed a five-year deal with fellow US energy company Entergy to develop 4.5GW of solar and energy storage projects.
John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, said: “Both [FPL and Energy Resources] are benefiting from strong tailwinds, which are creating opportunities to replace less efficient and more expensive power generation, as well as add new generation to meet growing power demand across sectors.”
Looking forward, NextEra Energy expects adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of US$3.23 to US$3.43 over 2024. Through 2025, 2026 and 2027, it expects them to rise to the ranges of US$3.45 to US$3.70, $US3.63 to US$4.00 and US$3.85 to US$4.32, respectively.
Ketchum said: “We will be disappointed if we are not able to deliver financial results at or near the top of our adjusted earnings per share expectations ranges each year through 2027, while maintaining our strong balance sheet and credit ratings.”
