Two Energia power generation firms recorded a surge in combined pre-tax profits to €112.3 million last year.
New accounts filed by Energia’s Huntstown Power Company Ltd and Energia Power Generation Ltd show that both energy generation firms benefited from the increase in energy prices in the 12 months to the end of March last.
However, the pre-tax profits recorded by the two firms were partly off-set by losses at a third Energia firm, Energia Customer Solutions Ltd.
The main activity of Energia Customer Solutions is the supply of electricity and gas to residential and non-residential customers in Ireland.
The business recorded pre-tax losses of €40.2 million in the 12 months to the end of March 2022 and this followed a pre-tax profit of €32.9 million in the prior year - a negative swing of €73.1 million.
The firm made the loss despite revenues increasing by €351 million or 37 per cent from €948 million to €1.29 billion.
The directors’ report states that the higher Integrated Single Electricity Market (ISEM) market prices have adversely impacted the Customer Solutions operations of the company.
They state that the company’s operating loss of €33.6 million primarily reflected lower electricity and gas margins due to higher commodity and energy prices together with higher operating costs.
The business’s residential electricity and gas customer sites decreased from 276,800 in 2021 to 265,100 last year while non-residential electricity customers decreased from 49,400 to 48,000 and non-residential gas customer sites decreased from 3,800 to 3,500.
The directors state that revenues increased to €1.29 billion primarily due to higher non-residential and residential electricity and gas revenues.
Numbers employed by the business last year totalled 83 as staff costs totalled €8.59 million.
Energia operates two Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plants at its Huntstown site in north Dublin.
Huntstown Power Company Ltd operates a 343MW CCGT and last year pre-tax profits more than tripled from €15.4 million to €47.4 million as revenues increased by €266.19 million from €118.7 million to €384.9 million.
The directors state that the profit primarily reflects higher market prices and margins as a result of lower availability of other thermal plants, lower wind generation and higher commodity prices.
They state the profit also reflects higher availability of the CCG plant as during the prior year there was a major outage.
Separate accounts for Energia Power Generation Ltd which operates the 404MW CCGT at the Huntstown power station site show that its pre-tax profits increased almost three-fold from €22.7 million to €64.9 million.
The €64.9 million pre-tax profit takes account of a €30 million property impairment reversal following the success of obtaining capacity contracts to September 2026 and following the replacement of the main generator transformer during the year.
The firm enjoyed the profit surge as revenues almost doubled from €108.7 million to €205.8 million.
