Talen Energy quarterly profit falls on higher expenses, Susquehanna outage

Aug 7 (Reuters) - Utility Talen Energy TLN.O reported a fall in second-quarter profit on Thursday, hurt by higher energy purchase costs and maintenance expenses associated with a refueling outage at its Susquehanna nuclear facility.

In May, the utility identified extra maintenance work in Unit 2 of the Susquehanna facility that had already been placed under a planned outage in March.

The company said it paid a total of $252 million for energy expenses during the second quarter, compared with $176 million a year ago. Its operation, maintenance and development expenses rose 17% to $192 million.

In June, Talen Energy expanded a nuclear energy partnership with Amazon.com AMZN.O to supply up to 1,920 megawatts of electricity from its Susquehanna plant in Pennsylvania to Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers.

The company said last month it was also acquiring two power plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio for a net $3.5 billion, and expects the purchase to boost free cash flow per share by more than 40% in 2026.

Talen owns and operates about 10.7 gigawatts of power infrastructure in the United States. It produces and sells electricity, capacity, and ancillary services into wholesale U.S. power markets.

Its quarterly operating revenue came in at $630 million for the quarter ended June 30, compared with $489 million a year earlier. Analysts, on average, expected revenue of $434.5 million, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The company reaffirmed its 2025 adjusted core profit forecast of between $975 million and $1.13 billion.

The Houston-Texas based company's net income fell to $72 million, or $1.50 per share, for the quarter ended June 30, from $454 million, or $7.60 per share, a year ago.