Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 9, 1994 TAG: 9401050287
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Rob Glenn, a vice president with Roanoke Gas Co., said conversations he has had with customers about the coming year lead him to such a conclusion.
Retailers tell him they've had a good Christmas, and people appear ready to spend, Glenn said. Roanoke Gas' own experience with increased sales of consumer goods, such as fireplace logs and gas water heaters and furnaces indicate people are in a mood to buy, he said.
Home builders are saying they're optimistic about the prospects for the sale of new homes - particularly those that are modestly priced. Roanoke Gas' industrial customers also appear to be doing well, Glenn said.
The response of customers to the company's stock purchase program also has been encouraging, he said.
Natural gas supplies seem to be readily available, and the price of fuel appears stable, Glenn said. "I feel cautiously optimistic; I feel we'll have a good year."
But like other industries such as electric utilities and farming, Roanoke Gas' success will depend to a great extent on the weather.
Don Johnson, a spokesman for Appalachian Power Co., said his utility expects growth in its Virginia sales of roughly 2.3 percent this year. That's less than last year, when the company's sales in the state jumped 5.1 percent. Roanoke-based Apco has customers in Virginia and West Virginia.
Apco expects to spend $106 million on capital improvements this year - roughly the same amount that the company spent in 1993, Johnson said. Nationwide, however, electric utilities estimate they will increase their capital spending by more than 7 percent, according to industry publication Electric Light & Power.
Johnson said Apco will continue its economic development efforts this year, but there's no way to gauge the impact they will have on business.
Apco's performance is tied to the weather and the economy, Johnson said. "If our customers do well, we do well."
The company's increased earnings last year reflected warmer summer weather and an improvement in industrial sales, he said.
Economists for Bell Atlantic, parent of C&P Telephone Co. of Virginia, expect the economy in the company's service region to lag behind the 2.5 percent to 3 percent annual growth they see for the entire country in the period from 1994 to 1999.
But Paul Miller, a C&P spokesman, said the company expects the economy in Virginia to do better than that of the Bell Atlantic region as a whole. Bell Atlantic operates in Washington, D.C.; Delaware; Maryland; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; Virginia; and West Virginia.
C&P, which changes its name on Jan. 24 to match its parent's, expects growth in access lines this year in Virginia, Miller said. A strong measure of the company's health is measured by growth in telephone access lines, he said.
This year will be a landmark year for Bell Atlantic, which expects to complete its merger with cable television giant TCI International late in the year, Miller said. The company will also be going to the State Corporation Commission this year asking for new rules that will allow it to operate more competitively, including permission to provide long distance service outside of regional calling areas.
The optimism of the local utility industry is echoed in the predictions for 1994 by the federal agencies that regulate and monitor the various utility sectors.
The U.S. Department of Commerce predicts the revenues of U.S. telephone companies will rise by 7 percent this year. Long-distance revenues will be up 6.5 percent, and revenues from international service will rise by 20 percent, according to the department's 1994 industrial outlook.
The Department of Energy expects a nationwide increase in the demand for natural gas of 3.3 percent to 3.7 percent, and an increase of 2.9 percent in the demand for electricity.
by CNB