Pinnacle West Reports 2026 First-Quarter Financial Results
- Hotter-than-normal weather drives increase in customer sales and usage
-
Customer growth of 2.2% continues to underscore a strong
Arizona economy - APS employees focus on critical summer preparedness and reliability
The results reflect an increase of approximately
“Phoenix and much of
Impacts of Weather on Customer Usage
Along with robust customer growth of 2.2% and weather-normalized sales growth of 9.4% during the quarter, weather variations spurred an increase in overall customer energy consumption. During the 2026 first-quarter, the average daytime high and overnight low temperatures were 8.6% and 11.9% higher, respectively, than last year’s comparable period — and both figures easily beat historical averages by double-digits.
The month of February ranked as Arizona’s hottest ever February, reducing the need for customers to run their heating systems. The warming trend then intensified into a historic March, shattering long-standing heat records across the state and the entire southwestern
The historically warm March temperatures meant home and businesses air conditioners were running more often than usual, resulting in cooling load levels and higher average energy use that typically would not be reached until May.
Planning Ahead and Ensuring Summer Reliability
Geisler said that as new families, businesses, and industries choose
Additionally, employees are staying focused on the critical preparations needed to ensure reliable power throughout the upcoming peak summer season.
“Whether it’s enhancing the company’s already vigorous wildfire mitigation program, running emergency‑operations drills, securing critical spare equipment, or performing preventative maintenance across power plants, substations and other infrastructure, the company’s top priority remains delivering safe and reliable power for all our customers, especially during the upcoming summer months,” he said. “That is our core responsibility, and we do not take it lightly.”
The company continues to add new infrastructure to support growth and reliability, while also securing extra energy resources for the summer. APS employees also are wrapping up a scheduled maintenance and refueling outage for Unit 2 at
Financial Outlook
For 2026, the Company continues to estimate its consolidated earnings will be within a range of
Conference Call and Webcast
Pinnacle West invites interested parties to listen to the live webcast of management’s conference call to discuss the company’s financial results and recent developments, and to provide an update on the company’s longer-term financial outlook, at
General Information
Dollar amounts in this news release are after income taxes. Earnings per share amounts are based on average diluted common shares outstanding. For more information on Pinnacle West’s operating statistics and earnings, please visit pinnaclewest.com/investors.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations. These forward-looking statements are often identified by words such as "estimate," "predict," "may," "believe," "plan," "expect," "require," "intend," "assume," "project," "anticipate," "goal," "seek," "strategy," "likely," "should," "will," "could," and similar words. Because actual results may differ materially from expectations, we caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements. A number of factors could cause future results to differ materially from historical results, or from outcomes currently expected or sought by Pinnacle West or APS. These factors include, but are not limited to:
- our ability to achieve timely and adequate rate recovery of our costs through our regulated rates and adjustor recovery mechanisms, including returns on and of debt and equity capital investment;
-
the impacts of federal, state, and local laws, judicial decisions, statutes, regulations, and
FERC , NRC,EPA , ACC, and other agency requirements, including as they are changed by legislative and regulatory action as well as executive orders, such as those relating to tax, environment, energy, nuclear plants, and deregulation of the retail electric market; -
our operation of
Palo Verde is subject to substantial regulatory oversight and potentially significant liabilities and capital expenditures; - we are subject to numerous environmental laws and changes to existing laws, or new laws, may increase our costs and impact our business;
- the potential effects of climate change on our electric system, including as a result of weather extremes, such as prolonged drought and high temperature variations in the area where APS conducts its business, as well as the impacts of policy and regulatory changes introduced to address climate change;
- co-owners of our jointly owned generation and transmission facilities may have unaligned goals;
- the willingness or ability of counterparties, participants, and landowners to meet contractual or other obligations or extend the rights for continued generation and transmission operations;
- deregulation of the electric industry and other factors, such as large customers developing large, utility scale generation to serve their energy needs, may result in increased competition;
- variations in demand for electricity, including those due to weather, seasonality (including large increases in ambient temperatures), the general economy or social conditions, customer and sales growth (or decline), data center growth (or lack thereof), including to support the AI industry, the effects of energy conservation measures and DG, and technological advancements;
- wildfires, including those arising as a result of climate change, extreme weather events, or the expansion of the wildland urban interface;
- generation, transmission, and distribution facilities and system operating costs, conditions, performance, and outages;
- our ability and efforts to meet current and anticipated future needs for generation and transmission and distribution facilities in our region at reliable levels, including factors affecting our ability to acquire and develop new resources to serve this load as well as difficulties in accurately forecasting load growth, particularly from high load energy users;
- availability of fuel and water supplies as well as the volatility and costs of fuel and purchased power;
- the direct or indirect effect on our facilities or business from cybersecurity threats or intrusions, data security breaches, terrorist attack, physical attack, severe storms, or other catastrophic events, such as fires, explosions, pandemic health events, or similar occurrences;
- risks inherent in the operation of nuclear facilities, including spent fuel disposal uncertainty;
- the development of new technologies and the impact they have on the retail and wholesale electricity market and the impacts of our adoption or failure to adopt such technologies;
- the availability and retention of qualified personnel and the need to negotiate collective bargaining agreements with union employees;
- the cost of debt, including increased cost as a result of rising interest rates, and equity capital and our ability to access capital markets when required as well as the impacts a credit rating downgrade would have on us;
- the investment performance of the assets of our nuclear decommissioning trust, captive insurance cell, coal mine reclamation escrow, pension, and other postretirement benefit plans, and the resulting impact on future funding requirements;
- Pinnacle West’s cash flow depends on the performance of APS and its ability to make dividends and distributions;
- potential shortfalls in insurance coverage;
- Pinnacle West’s ability to meet its debt service obligation could be adversely affected because its debt securities are structurally subordinated to the debt securities and obligations of its subsidiaries;
- the liquidity of wholesale power markets and the use of derivative contracts in our business;
-
policy changes in
Arizona or other states through ballot initiatives or referenda may increase our cost or operations or affect our business plans; -
general economic conditions, such as tariffs, inflation, and other supply chain constraints, as well as uncertainties associated with the current and future economic environment and conditions in
Arizona ; and - disruptions in financial markets could adversely affect our cost of and access to credit and capital markets.
These and other factors are discussed in the most recent Pinnacle West/APS Form 10-K and 10-Q along with other public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which readers should review carefully before placing any reliance on our financial statements or disclosures. Neither Pinnacle West nor APS assumes any obligation to update these statements, even if our internal estimates change, except as required by law.
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|
|||||||
| CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME | |||||||
| (unaudited) | |||||||
| (dollars and shares in thousands, except per share amounts) | |||||||
| THREE MONTHS ENDED |
|||||||
|
|
2026 |
|
|
2025 |
|
||
| Operating Revenues |
$ |
1,149,597 |
|
$ |
1,032,280 |
|
|
| Operating Expenses | |||||||
| Fuel and purchased power |
|
436,729 |
|
|
380,071 |
|
|
| Operations and maintenance |
|
276,700 |
|
|
300,109 |
|
|
| Depreciation and amortization |
|
239,858 |
|
|
234,940 |
|
|
| Taxes other than income taxes |
|
61,972 |
|
|
59,354 |
|
|
| Other expense |
|
3,164 |
|
|
584 |
|
|
| Total |
|
1,018,423 |
|
|
975,058 |
|
|
| Operating Income |
|
131,174 |
|
|
57,222 |
|
|
| Other Income (Deductions) | |||||||
| Allowance for equity funds used during construction |
|
14,782 |
|
|
13,249 |
|
|
| Pension and other postretirement non-service credits - net |
|
3,982 |
|
|
2,958 |
|
|
| Other income |
|
4,981 |
|
|
17,461 |
|
|
| Other expense |
|
(2,740 |
) |
|
(2,570 |
) |
|
| Total |
|
21,005 |
|
|
31,098 |
|
|
| Interest Expense | |||||||
| Interest charges |
|
125,759 |
|
|
104,943 |
|
|
| Allowance for borrowed funds used during construction |
|
(9,863 |
) |
|
(10,102 |
) |
|
| Total |
|
115,896 |
|
|
94,841 |
|
|
| Income (Loss) Before Income Taxes |
|
36,283 |
|
|
(6,521 |
) |
|
| Income Taxes (Benefit) |
|
1,169 |
|
|
(6,183 |
) |
|
| Net Income (Loss) |
|
35,114 |
|
|
(338 |
) |
|
| Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests |
|
2,194 |
|
|
4,306 |
|
|
| Net Income (Loss) Attributable To Common Shareholders |
$ |
32,920 |
|
$ |
(4,644 |
) |
|
| Weighted-Average Common Shares Outstanding - Basic |
|
121,360 |
|
|
119,594 |
|
|
| Weighted-Average Common Shares Outstanding - Diluted |
|
123,778 |
|
|
119,594 |
|
|
| Earnings Per Weighted-Average Common Share Outstanding | |||||||
| Net income (loss) attributable to common shareholders - basic |
$ |
0.27 |
|
$ |
(0.04 |
) |
|
| Net income (loss) attributable to common shareholders - diluted |
$ |
0.27 |
|
$ |
(0.04 |
) |
|
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Website: pinnaclewest.com
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