El Paso Electric’s profit decreased in 2025 as electric sales increased slightly.
The profit decreased mostly due to increased operating expenses, primarily for increased labor costs, according to a company statement.
The small gain in sales’ revenues in 2025 and a decrease in 2024 is “primarily due to the lack of increases in base rates in these years due to regulatory lag,” officials reported.
Texas regulators approved a rate increase in February for the company, but at a much lower amount than company officials had sought.
For residential customers, the new rates, which will begin appearing on bills May 1, means an average increase of $13.23 per month, up 13.5%. Bills will also contain a monthly surcharge for an unspecified time because the new rates are retroactive to July 1, 2025.
EPE’s latest financial report, 429 pages long, was filed April 1 with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC.
The privately held company no longer files quarterly or annual reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, as it did when it was a publicly traded company for most of its almost 125 years of history.
The company was sold in 2020 to the privately held JPMorgan Chase-tied Infrastructure Investments Fund, or IIF, and its stock shares are no longer traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
It has about 470,000 customers in West Texas and southern New Mexico.
Here’s the 2025 financial highlights:
Profit down, but remains healthy
Profit: $140.8 million, decreased $31.2 million, down18%.
Dividends: Shareholders in the Infrastructure Investments Fund, or IIF, EPE’s owner, received $145.8 million in EPE profits through dividends.
Payback: IIF returned $385 million to EPE to help fund construction projects, money that IIF shareholders will get back in dividends in future years. That’s an increase of $20 million from 2024.
Electricity sales up slightly
Total electricity sales: $1.061 billion, after fuel costs and solar credits deducted; increase of $7.3 million, up 0.7%.
Residential sales: $418.3 million, after fuel costs and solar credits deducted; increase of $4.3 million, up 1%.
EPE continues to add customers
Total customers: 470,748 at end of 2025, up 2.45%
Residential customers: 417,578, up 2.5%
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Nuclear plant fund grows
Palo Verde trust fund: $51.1 million increase in the EPE fund’s investments. The fund was worth $503 million at the end of 2025.
The Palo Verde Decommissioning Trust Fund is designed to help EPE pay for its share of costs in the distant future for possible closure of the Arizona nuclear plant, of which EPE owns almost 16%. Palo Verde supplies about half of the utility’s electricity.
Meta pays for electricity structures
Meta payment: $144.5 million in 2025 from Meta Platforms Inc., the company that operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as advances on construction of two electric substations and expansion of existing substation to serve its massive data center complex under construction in far Northeast El Paso.
Meta is expected to pay more to EPE, including construction cost of a $500 million power plant next to the data center complex.
Employees get 4% pay raises
Paychecks: 4% pay increase for most of EPE’s 1,200 employees, including about 430 union employees and most executive officers.
CEO’s $936,000 leads executives’ pay
The top five salaries for EPE executives:
Kelly Tomblin, chief executive officer: $936,000, $36,000 increase, up 4%. That’s below the 9.1% increase she had in 2024.
Cynthia Henry, general counsel: $322,400, $12,400 increase, up 4%.
Cheryl Mele, chief technology officer: $319,200, $34,200 increase, up 12%. She moved in January 2025 from vice president of employee and customer services.
James Schichtl, customer and regulatory solutions VP: $318,760, $12,200 increase, up 4%. His title changed in January from vice president of regulatory and resource strategy.
David Hawkins, system planning and operations support VP: $306,734, $8,934 increase, up 3%. His title changed in January from vice president of operations and support.
Company board shares $1.2 million
Board pay: Just under $1.2 million in compensation and expenses paid to nine members of EPE’s 10-member board of directors. Compensation amounts for individual board members are not reported.
Tomblin, the company CEO, also is a board member, but does not get board compensation.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on X, and @vkolenc.bsky.social on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso Electric by the numbers: 2025 sales up slightly, profit down
Reporting by Vic Kolenc, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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