Question-and-Answer Session
Thank you Sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. And our first question is from the line of Danielle Sykes [ph] with Sykes Research. Please go ahead.
Benjamin G.S. Fowke III - Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Hey Danielle, how are you?
Danielle Sykes - Sykes Research
Good morning. Hi, good. I just was wondering if you? since you have done so much advanced financing, do you still need plan on issuing equity next year or is it still not really firm yet?
Benjamin G.S. Fowke III - Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
No Danielle I think the steps we took in September with equity addressed our equity needs for the foreseeable future.
Danielle Sykes - Sykes Research
Great. And also you mentioned bad debt expenses. Do you have any comparison or any data that you can share at this time?
Benjamin G.S. Fowke III - Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Bad debt for the quarter was just slightly above third quarter 2007, and we are forecasting that bad debt will come in about at the same level of? in 2008 as it did in 2007 and about what it did in 2006
That is though an expense higher than what we originally anticipated for the year Danielle. I think I had mentioned in prior calls, we have really improved a lot of processes on our bad debt collection, and we had hoped that we could bring bad debt expense down but given the economic conditions we're in that's not likely now. And I do believe that we need to really monitor this trend in the coming quarter and certainly into 2009.
Danielle Sykes - Sykes Research
Thanks
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ashar Khan with SAC Capital. Please go ahead.
Benjamin G.S. Fowke III - Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Hi Ashar.
Ashar Khan - SAC Capital
Ben, if I'm right you need $0.36 or a $0.06 improvement in the fourth quarter to achieve the lower end of the guidance. Could you tell us what are the positive factors versus last year, which will allow to you reach the low end of the guidance?
Benjamin G.S. Fowke III - Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
A lot of it will come in O&M Ashar. I mean if the? Last year I believe O&M probably was running at a trend line higher than what you saw the full year. This year we expect it will be the opposite. So that will do a lot for us. The $0.02 benefit we only got half of what we were looking for from the nuclear fueling outage. You'll see that impact in the O&M number. So by and large it will be in O&M.
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