Paul Ridzon (Keybanc Capital Markets): Can you update us on segment guidance for the year as it sounds as though pieces might be moving around?
Armando Pimentel Jr.: We are not updating our segment guidance. We feel comfortable with the overall range of $3.83 to $3.93 that we have given. Our prepared remarks did indicate that our expectation is that FPL, because of customer growth and usage, would struggle this year, but we are positive on our 2008 results looking forward for FPL Energy.
Paul Ridzon (Keybanc Capital Markets): What were the absolute earnings from trading activity in the quarter?
Armando Pimentel Jr.: We indicated in our prepared remarks that that segment of the business contributed 3 cents in addition to what it contributed last year.
Paul Ridzon (Keybanc Capital Markets): What did it contribute absolutely?
Armando Pimentel Jr.: It was about $40 million to $45 million after tax.
Paul Ridzon (Keybanc Capital Markets): Could you discuss the relative economics of wind in Canada without the PTC?
James L. Robo: The simple answer on Canada is that we feel like it is an attractive market it is not a tax-driven market, which is one of the things that we find attractive about it. We feel like the relative economics of that market versus the US is comparable, and we are continuing to develop. This is a first step for us. We have been looking at developing projects there for about 18 months, and we are going to continue to work it, and it is going to be part of the growth portfolio going forward.
Paul Ridzon (Keybanc Capital Markets): Without tax credits, it is a better market; so is it equivalent of US with tax credits?
James L. Robo: It is not a tax-driven market the way it works is that you get a power purchase agreement it differs province by province, but in the projects that we purchased this year they have power purchase agreements with good entities in the provinces at prices that are supportive of the overall economics of doing a wind project it is similar to what you would get when you combine the PTC with whatever revenue you get from a customer here in the US. So, effectively, the top-line revenue in Canada is comparable to the top-line revenue of energy revenue plus the PTC in the US.
Steve Fleishman (Catapult Capital Management): In the quarter your wind matrix explored dramatically above normal 114%, but you did not highlight that as a factor in the quarter. Could you explain?
Armando Pimentel Jr.: We had a good wind resource quarter. The way I would look at the wind information that we provide you is more on a trend basis so the trend is going up. As the trend is going up, the wind resource is better than we had expected. I do not necessarily think that you should just take that wind analysis matrix and do that calculation of 114%. We are in the process of going through as we always do and trying to determine whether that is the best analysis and whether we can make changes to that matrix going forward, but I think it is better to look at it on a trend basis as opposed to just say, Hey it is 14% over a hundred, that must mean that earnings improved by 14% more than what we expected.
Steve Fleishman (Catapult Capital Management): You have given a rule of thumb in the past a couple of pennies per percent per year. Are you saying that is not a good rule of thumb to be using?
Moray P. Dewhurst: We mentioned before that the wind index itself is not by any means linear with the ultimate production at the relevant sites. This happens to be a quarter where it is off where the index is up by more than the actual production is up. Last year we had a couple of quarter where the index was down by more than the production turned out to be down. Those rules of thumb which we had given you in the past they work in some cases, but not in all cases, and that is why we are working on trying to update the methodology to see if we can get a little more precise to give you some better guidelines in future, but there is a lot of sources of variability between the wind index which is based on these reference towers some miles away from the actual site, and then what we realize net at the site, and that is what we are trying to bridge.
Steve Fleishman (Catapult Capital Management): Is there any consideration given the economy to delay some of your new power plant or when does it get to a point where you might need to consider that?
Armando Olivera: We keep looking at these numbers, but we are confident that the West County 3 filing will produce customer savings, and so if the need does not materialize at the same levels that we forecasted, we still will produce significant customer savings over $400 million of customer savings so we think that that is a strong argument. Coupled with that, they provide an environmental benefit for our customers. So, if you look at the need certification process in Florida, it is not just exclusively driven by need. You can meet any one of three criteria, and we are confident that we can meet all three, but at the very least two out of the three.
Lewis Hay III: With gas prices increasing, the economic attractiveness of those gas plants increases. So the net savings to the customer is higher.
Steve Fleishman (Catapult Capital Management): You mentioned some announcement environmental related today. Could you repeat what you said there?
Armando Olivera: Later on this morning we are going to be making an announcement about converting two existing older plants that are primarily fueled by oil and converting them to gas fired plants; again, for the same drivers that West County 3 makes sense. These are two plants that are facing significant costs associated with environmental pollution control equipment, close to about $450 million over the next 10 years. We looked at those costs, we looked at the price of natural gas and fossil fuel, and we can modernize them, put in more efficient combined gas turbines, and it still comes out to be a huge positive for the customer. We will be announcing that we are going to go forward and seek approval to convert these two plants.
Mark Segal (Canaccord Adams): With respect to your advanced metering activity to date, have you settled on a particular technology or vendor that you are comfortable with to move forward in the process and then building on that. Are you able to give us a sense of the timing of future project milestones and what they may entail?
|