UE PROFITS, ELECTRIC SALES UP WITH MORE SEASONAL WEATHER

ST. LOUIS - Union Electric Co. reported first-quarter profits this year were up 43 percent because of higher power sales, lower debt expenses and better cost controls.

UE said revenue for the three months that ended March 31 was up 5 percent because of a return to more seasonal winter temperatures during the period.

That was in sharp contrast to 1992, when UE earnings declined by more than 5 percent for the year. Unusually mild weather last summer reduced the demand for electricity to operate air conditioning.

UE said a return to normal winter temperatures during January, February and March resulted in increased sales of electricity, especially to homes heated by electricity.

Al Robertson, climatologist and professor of geo-sciences at Southeast Missouri State University, said the average temperature at Cape Girardeau for the period Jan. 1-March 31 was 38 degrees, down 1.3 degrees from the long-term average.

"More significantly, the number of heating degree days rose by 4.7 percent during the same period, indicating cooler temperatures," Robertson said. He explained a heating degree day is the difference between the actual daily temperature and a base temperature of 65 degrees.

"Any day the average daily temperature is below 65 degrees, it would be considered a heating degree day because most people would turn up the heat in their homes."

UE's earnings per share, like overall profits, were up 43 percent for the first three months of this year. The utility posted the sharply higher earnings despite taking a $9 million pretax charge to comply with new accounting rules covering future cost of retiree medical benefits.

UE said kilowatt-hour sales of electricity to residential customers in eastern and Southeast Missouri rose 17 percent in the first quarter, while sales to commercial customers rose 7 percent. The utility said that one year ago sales of electricity to commercial customers were down 11 percent, primarily because of the sale of its operations in southeastern Iowa and west-central Illinois.

UE Chairman William E. Cornelius said that customers in Missouri paid less per kilowatt hour of power in the first quarter of this year than they did a year earlier, thanks to a rate cut that took effect in January.

"If last year's rates had been in effect this quarter, these customers would have paid $8 million more for the electricity they needed," he said.

UE, which is based in St. Louis, serves about 1.2 million customers in eastern and Southeast Missouri, and southwestern Illinois.

Since the start of 1991, the utility has refinanced nearly $900 million in debt and preferred stock, cutting annual interest costs by $30 million.