(RTTNews) - Electric utility company Dynegy Inc. (DYN) is scheduled to report third-quarter results before the market opens Thursday, with analysts forecasting earnings of $0.03 per share on revenues of $877.54 million. In the year-ago quarter, the company posted earnings of $0.72 per share and revenue of $1.89 billion.

Like many other energy companies, Dynegy's performance has also been impacted by the overall decline of U.S. energy prices. However, the company's diverse approach with geographic presence in three U.S. regions and a range of fuel and dispatch types have weathered the market impacts.

According to the Energy Information Administration or EIA, total U.S. electricity consumption fell 1.6% in the 2008 and is forecast to decline by 3.3% in 2009, and then grow by 1.3% in 2010 as the improving economy leads to slowly recovering industrial sector electricity sales.

During the first half of 2009, the largest declines in residential electricity sales occurred in the western United States, while industrial sales declined most dramatically in the eastern United States. The rate of decline in electricity consumption is expected to slow during the second half of 2009, especially in the southwestern United States, EIA said.

Dynegy provides wholesale power, capacity and ancillary services to utilities, cooperatives, municipalities and other energy companies in 12 states in its key U.S. regions of the Midwest, the Northeast and the West Coast. The company's power generation portfolio consists of more than 17,700 megawatts of baseload, intermediate and peaking power plants fueled by a mix of coal, fuel oil and natural gas.

Dynegy said, on August 10, it currently sees fiscal 2009 net loss between $975 million and $935 million, versus its prior forecast range of net loss $520 million and $480 million. The company also expects to generate operating results between pro forma operating loss of $55 million - operating income of $70 million for fiscal 2010. Adjusted EBITDA for the year is estimated between $425 million and $550 million.

For the preceding quarter, the company incurred a net loss of $345 million or $0.41 per share, wider than the prior-year's loss of $272 million or $0.32 per share, hurt by asset impairment charges and lower realized power prices. Meanwhile, revenues advanced to $493 million from $322 million in the previous year.

Earlier in August, Dynegy announced its plan to sell five peaking and three combined-cycle generation assets, as well as its remaining interest in a project under construction in Texas to power-generation company LS Power Associates L.P. As per the terms of the deal, Dynegy will receive $1.025 billion in cash and 245 million of its Class B shares held by LS Power upon completion.

The company has also announced an extensive, multi-year program to eliminate costs throughout the company, which would results in cumulative savings between $400 million and $450 million, relative to Dynegy's original plan, over a four-year period beginning in 2010. Dynegy also expects to incur a restructuring charge in the third quarter 2009 of less than $5 million related to a workforce reduction associated with the cost savings program.

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