Dominion Power 2014 Annual Report Download - page 9

DOMINION RESOURCES, INC.
7
OUR
COMMITMENT
Dear Investors,
Dominion’s employees work hard, keep
their sense of focus and do their jobs
wonderfully well in markets bear and
bull. Together, we continue delivering
power and gas, and building energy
infrastructure to serve our customers
and communities.
Since the beginning of 2008—when our nation’s economy was
entering a freefall crisis—Dominion has invested about $18 billion
in new infrastructure, and we expect to invest another $19.2 billion
in additional projects by the end of 2020.
Over the past seven years, our Dominion team has built a
financial and operational track record of which we are proud. Your
company has returned 117 percent in a combination of share
appreciation and dividends to you, our shareholders. Our market
capitalization has increased 64 percent. In addition to growth
investments, we have contributed more than $150 million for
philanthropic endeavors in the communities we serve. And, our
employees have protected themselves and the public: Recorded
safety incidence rates and rates for workplace accidents resulting
in lost time or restricted duty have fallen 47 percent and
58 percent, respectively.
Financial Results in 2014
In 2014, Dominion earned $3.43 per share in operating earnings,
up from $3.25 per share in 2013, or 5.5 percent.1 Earnings under
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) were $2.24 per
share, down from $2.93 per share in 2013.
Total shareholder return, which recognizes stock valuation change
in addition to dividends paid, amounted to 23 percent in 2014.
By comparison, returns for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the
S&P 500, and our utility peers in the Philadelphia Stock Exchange
Index were 10 percent, 14 percent and 29 percent, respectively.
Your company distributed $2.40 per share in dividends, an
increase of almost 7 percent over the 2013 dividend rate.
Polar Vortex Events Test Our Culture
These financial results reflect the dedication of Dominion’s
workforce of 14,500 employees who provide round-the-clock
service customers have come to expect.
We have built a good system and have maintained and operated it
well, but were tested on multiple occasions in January 2014,
when the eastern U.S. experienced what meteorologists call a
Polar Vortex.
Record-cold temperatures—with readings well below 0 degrees
Fahrenheit—were recorded throughout the region east of the
Mississippi, where we serve 3.8 million gas and electric utility
customer accounts. Yet despite increased load and constrained
gas pipelines and electric transmission lines throughout that
region, only one-twentieth of 1 percent of our customer accounts
in Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Ohio experienced
load-related outages.
During the Polar Vortex events, our reliable non-nuclear generating
fleet was available 91 percent of the time. In contrast, the
availability of the average non-nuclear generating unit within PJM,
the regional transmission entity serving 13 states in the eastern
half of the U.S., was 78 percent on those same high-demand
days. Our four nuclear reactors in Virginia—which annually provide
more than 40 percent of the Dominion Virginia Power utility fleet’s
electric production—ran every minute of every day during
these periods.
1 Based on non-GAAP Financial Measures. See page 22 for GAAP Reconciliations.