The Tennessee Valley Authority will end 2012 in the black, despite running losses every quarter this year. Weather played havoc with TVA’s bottom line this year. While customers used record amounts of power during June’s scorching heat wave, it wasn’t enough to make up for a slump during a mild winter.

Still, Chief Financial Officer John Thomas says TVA ended up in positive territory, mostly due to cost cutting and cheaper prices for gas and coal.

“Overall we ended the year with $60 million worth of net income, which I’m very proud of, given the revenue challenges we had in the year.”

Thomas warned a slow economic recovery will cause problems for TVA next year. The utility will also have to spend money to repair a hydroelectric plant near Chattanooga. In addition, TVA is racing to finish its Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor, which is already two billion dollars over budget.

Thomas made his comments today, at a TVA board meeting in Alabama. The utility will give more details when it releases its year-end results tomorrow.

Today’s meeting was the last for CEO Tom Kilgore, who steps down next month.