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SAN FRANCISCO — PG&E Corp. reported Monday that its third-quarter profit nearly tripled from a year ago, reflecting a steep drop in the energy costs of its bankrupt utility, Pacific Gas and Electric. 

The San Francisco-based company earned $771 million, or $2.12 per share, in the three months ended in September, up from $225 million, or 62 cents per share, for the same period last year. 

Pacific Gas and Electric’s dramatically lower energy costs powered the parent company’s profit surge. Management downplayed the significance of the third-quarter earnings gain, attributing it to different accounting methods used in the two periods. 

If not for the accounting change and other unusual items, PG&E Corp. said it would have earned $256 million, or 70 cents per share, a 3 percent increase from $248 million, or 68 cents per share, last year. 

The operating profit fell below the consensus estimate of 78 cents per share among analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

The results still drew a positive response on Wall Street. 

PG&E Corp.’s shares rose 43 cents to close at $18.36 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. With the worst of the California energy crisis apparently over, the stock has climbed steadily from its 52-week low of $6.50, reached shortly after Pacific Gas and Electric’s April 6 bankruptcy filing. 

The utility hopes to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of next year, PG&E Corp. management told analysts during a conference call Monday. 

The reorganization plan calls for the utility to spin off its power generation business, including its hydroelectric dams and Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, so the company can borrow against the full value of the assets to help repay $13 billion in debt. 

State regulations limit how much can be borrowed against the hydroelectric dams and Diablo Canyon as long as they remain part of the utility. 

But PG&E Corp.’s healthy third-quarter profits showed the breakup probably isn’t necessary, said Nettie Hoge, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, which opposes PG&E’s reorganization plan. 

“They are not hurting as badly as they say they are,” Hoge said. “They shouldn’t be allowed to sell off the generating assets under a bankruptcy scheme.” 

PG&E management told analysts that the gap between the utility’s energy costs and energy revenue would probably continue to benefit the company next year, adding more cash to the $4.3 billion in its accounts as of Sept. 30. 

The company is confident its reorganization plan will be approved, although “there will be choppy waters ahead,” PG&E Corp. Chairman Robert Glynn warned in Monday’s conference call. A creditors committee, consisting mostly of wholesale power generators, supports the plan. 

The utility’s energy costs plunged 69 percent in the quarter, falling from $2.23 billion last year to $697 million this year. Meanwhile, a sweeping electricity rate increase imposed in June helped boost Pacific Gas and Electric’s revenue 16 percent to $2.94 billion. 

PG&E changed the way that it accounted for the difference between its wholesale power costs and incoming revenue late last year. 

With the utility’s retail rates frozen at a time its wholesale electricity costs were soaring, PG&E Corp. absorbed $5.2 billion in after-tax charges in the fourth quarter of 2000 and first quarter of this year to account for its unreimbursed power expenses. 

PG&E Corp. used the third-quarter windfall from lower power costs to offset $687 million in previously recognized losses. 

Through the first nine months of the year, PG&E Corp. earned $570 million, or $1.57 per share, a 24 percent decrease from $753 million, or $2.07 per share last year. The company’s revenue through nine months totaled $17.99 billion, down less than 1 percent from $18.15 billion a year ago. 

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