Reduced operating expenses over the summer months helped boost Xcel Energy Inc.'s third-quarter earnings, Dow Jones News reports. The Minneapolis-based utility earned $398 million, up nearly 18 percent from $338.3 million a year earlier.

The Minneapolis-based utility reports first-quarter earnings of $184 million compared to $204 million in 2011. Xcel says the drop was expected because we had one of the warmest winters on record.

The deal still needs approval by the state Public Utilities Commission. If approved, the average Xcel residential customer would see a 2.7 percent rate increase -- or an additional $2.30 a month.

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy says about three-dozen crew members from Minnesota and another eight from western Wisconsin are headed to West Virginia to help rebuild electricity distribution systems destroyed by East Coast superstorm, Fox 9 reports. Roughly 6.5 million people from Maine to the Carolinas were still without power as of early Wednesday morning.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved the rate increase, but it's actually less than half what the Minneapolis-based utility originally requested. The Star Tribune reports the average residential customer will get a $30 refund because they've already been paying a higher interim rate.