ENMAX Corporation today announced net earnings of approximately $38 million for the first quarter of 2008, up by 16% on the same quarter of last year.  During the same period, about $97 million was invested in ENMAX Power’s Calgary electricity infrastructure as well as the construction and acquisition of additional electricity supply for ENMAX Energy’s customers.
 
“We’re continuing to grow our businesses and build value for our shareholder while ENMAX Energy offers competitive prices for Albertans,” said Gary Holden, President & CEO of ENMAX Corporation.  “We’re also investing significant sums in meeting Calgary’s growing transmission and distribution infrastructure needs and in procuring future energy supplies for our customers.”

“In the last three months, we’ve announced the proposed purchase of an additional wind farm to meet growing demand for renewable energy, made an offer to purchase natural gas reserves to fuel power generation and meet our customers’ natural gas needs, and filed our regulatory application for the Crossfield Energy Centre,” continued Holden.  “We’ve also received approval from our shareholder to proceed with our proposal to build a 1,000 megawatt plant close to Calgary.”

Net earnings for the first quarter 2008 were $37.9 million, compared with $32.6 million for the same period last year, an increase of 16.3%.  Increases in consolidated net earnings were principally the result of higher sales volumes, offset somewhat by higher taxes, amortization and inflationary pressure on operating costs.

ENMAX Energy’s electricity customers purchased 3,838 gigawatt hours (GWh) in the first three months of 2008 compared to 3,234 GWh over the same period last year: an increase of 18.7%.  Sales volumes of natural gas in the first quarter rose by 37.0% to 12,597 terajoules (TJs), up from 9,192 TJs for the first quarter of 2007.

As a result of strong performance throughout its operations, ENMAX Corporation’s annualized return on equity rose from 9.5% in the first quarter of last year to 10.3% this year.

Income tax expenses more than doubled in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the same period of the previous year: up from $3.8 million to $8.5 million as a result of the increase in earnings.

ENMAX Corporation paid $12.5 million in the first quarter of 2008 toward the $50 million total dividend that the Company declared to its shareholder earlier in the year. 

ENMAX Corporation, through subsidiaries and predecessors, has provided Albertans with safe and reliable electricity for more than 100 years. ENMAX provides electricity, natural gas and value-added services to more than half a million residential, commercial and industrial customer accounts in Alberta. Through a subsidiary, ENMAX Energy is one of Alberta’s largest investors in renewable energy with partial ownership of the McBride Lake Wind Farm and complete ownership of the Taber Wind Farm. ENMAX Energy has the largest green power marketing program of its kind in Canada. Visit our website at enmax.com.