Thanks in part to its wind power business, in the first quarter of this year, Avangrid Renewables earned $70 million, or $0.23 per share, compared with $43 million, or $0.14 per share, for the same period in 2016. The company has also announced a new CEO, Laura Beane.
Beane has been named the incoming CEO for Avangrid Renewables; outgoing CEO Frank Burkhartsmeyer is resigning to take a position with another company next month.
“Laura and Frank have each been with the company for nearly 20 years (including the prior affiliate PacifiCorp), and we’re fortunate to have such an easy transition at a time when we’re growing this company at such a steady pace,” says Jim Torgerson, CEO of parent company Avangrid Inc. “Laura has held a variety of key leadership roles for us, most recently as the vice president of operations and maintenance services, and brings multiple diverse skills to her new role. We wish Frank well in his new endeavor and thank him for his many years of service and helping us become one of the leading wind developers in the U.S.”
According to Avangrid Renewables, earnings for the first quarter of 2017 (ended March 31) benefited from improved wind production, primarily from the inclusion of the 208 MW Amazon Wind Farm U.S. East in North Carolina.
“We continue to execute on our growth strategy and during the first quarter signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with a Fortune 500 Company for 201 MW to be sourced from a new wind farm in Oregon,” says Torgerson. “Also during the first quarter, another PPA was secured for 80 MW with Dairyland Power Cooperative. This PPA will replace previous merchant capacity from our Barton wind farm in Iowa.”
Torgerson notes that Avangrid Renewables also won last month’s offshore wind lease auction for 122,405 acres off the coast of Kitty Hawk, N.C. He says Avangrid plans to “play a leading role in the growth of U.S. renewables through future infrastructure investments in onshore and offshore wind and through utilization of [its] key transmission corridors.”
