Oct. 30--EL PASO -- A hot summer and Fort Bliss growth boosted El Paso Electric sales and boosted earnings 2.5 percent in the third quarter, the company reported Thursday.

The company had a profit of $33.9 million, or 76 cents a share, in the July through September quarter, compared with $33.1 million, or 74 cents a share, a year ago.

El Paso Electric officials also announced that the company would file a rate-increase request for El Paso-area customers in early December, when it will specify how much of an increase it will seek. The company's 10-year rate freeze for the El Paso area ends June 30.

"It was a good quarter for us primarily driven by two factors: A warmer (summer) period, and secondly, we enjoy a fairly resilient economy compared to the rest of the country," said El Paso Electric CEO David Stevens.

Growth at Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range is helping to increase electric sales. About 40 percent of the company's third-quarter sales growth was tied to those military facilities, said David Carpenter, the company's chief financial officer. The rest of the sales increase was tied to hot weather, he said.

Maurice May, an analyst who follows El Paso Electric for Massachusetts-based Power Insights/Soleil Securities, said El Paso Electric, like many other electric utilities in the Southwest, was helped by an unusually hot summer. But El Paso Electric's 1.7 percent growth in customers in the third quarter is impressive, May said.

"El Paso is growing more than

some other areas because of Fort Bliss," May said.

The company had 368,487 customers at the end of the third quarter.

It reported $146.1 million in revenues from retail electric sales in the July through September quarter, an increase of 8.1 percent from a year ago.

Revenues from off-system, wholesale sales declined 55.3 percent to $28.3 million, mostly because of lower market prices, the company reported.

Twenty-five percent of profits from off-system sales go to customers in the form of fuel charge reductions. Those profits were cut almost in half in the third quarter to $3.08 million. Beginning in July, El Paso Electric customers will get 90 percent of the profits from off-system sales.

The company also resumed its stock repurchase program in the third quarter. It bought 751,235 shares of El Paso Electric stock for $12.9 million in the quarter.

Since 1999, the company has repurchased 20.5 million shares of stock for $292 million, which translates to an annual average repurchase of about 3 percent of the company's outstanding shares, Carpenter reported.

Analyst May said, "El Paso Electric continues its long-term strategy of buying back stock instead of paying dividends" as other electric utilities do. The company stopped paying dividends in the late 1980s when it was in financial trouble, and investors have gotten used to the stock repurchase program, he said.

El Paso Electric's stock closed Thursday at $19.13 a share, up 49 cents a share, on the New York Stock Exchange.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com;546-6421.

For more information: www.epelectric.com

Las Cruces rate increase --El Paso Electric has reached an agreement for a $5.5 million rate increase in the Las Cruces area.

--That will raise base rates an average 3 percent early next year if the agreement is approved by the New Mexico Public Regulation Com mission.

--The rate increase won't be felt by Las Cruces customers because declines in fuel charges are lowering electric bills, said El Paso Electric CEO David Stevens.

--The company will file another New Mexico rate-increase request in June 2010 to help pay for expansion of the Newman power plant in Northeast El Paso.

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