Pre-tax profits at the retail arm of energy provider Energia last year declined by 47% to €81.65m due to lower residential and non-residential margins.
New accounts filed by Energia Customer Solutions Ltd show that the company recorded the sharp drop in pre-tax profits as revenues declined marginally from €1.533 billion to €1.521 billion in the 12 months to the end of March 2025.
Revenues and profits declined against a background of Energia’s customer base increasing during the year.
The figures show that the firm’s residential customer base increased by 26,600 or 11% from 247,700 to 274,300 while its non-residential customer base increased by 3% or 1,600 from 49,400 to 51,000.
However, despite the increase in customers, the volume of energy sold declined with electricity sales reducing from 4.5 terawatt hours (TWh) to 4.3 (TWh) while gas volume sales reduced from 65.2 million therms to 48.3 million therms.
The drop in energy sold was driven by a decline in the non-residential market which was partially offset by increase in energy sold to residential customers.
The directors state that revenues reduced primarily due to lower residential revenues reflecting a decrease in tariffs against the prior year and partially offset by higher volumes.
Last October the firm proceeded with “unavoidable” electricity price hikes for its residential customers due to what the company described as “the scale of the cumulative system operator and network charges”.
Numbers employed remained at the same level at 99 and staff costs increased from €10.29m to €10.64m.
Pay to directors increased from €1.219m to €1.46m made up of €1.36m in emoluments and pension contributions of €98,000.
At the end of March last, the firm had shareholder funds of €70.19m.
Separate accounts filed for another Energia company, Huntstown Power Company Limited show that its pre-tax profits increased five fold from €12.7m to €63.64m in the 12 months to the end of March last.
This followed revenues increasing by 37% from €232m to €318.34m.
The main activity of the company is the generation of electricity from its 343MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plant on the Huntstown site north of Dublin.
The company also commissioned an emergency generation facility during the prior year and is progressing the development of a proposed data centre at its Huntstown campus in Dublin.
Profits were boosted during the year by an exceptional gain of €29.8m arising from the reversal of an impairment of property, plant and equipment.
During the year, the firm paid a dividend of €15m. The company recorded a post tax profit of €54.9m after incurring a corporation tax charge of €8.67m.
Accumulated profits stood at €166.99m.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
