The retail arm of energy provider, Energia last year swung back into profit to record pre-tax profits of €154.33m despite losing 14,600 customers over the 12 months.
New accounts filed by Energia Customer Solutions Ltd show that the company recorded the pre-tax profits of €154.3m after sustaining a pre-tax loss of €149.5m in the prior year – a positive swing of €303.8m.
The company returned to profit as revenues decreased by 16% from €1.82bn to €1.53bn in the 12 months to the end of March 2024.
Revenues declined against a background of Energia’s customer base reducing by 14,600 from 311,700 to 297,100 over the 12 months.
Residential customers reduced from 261,400 to 247,700 while non-residential customers reduced from 50,300 to 49,400.
The directors state that total electricity sales volumes were 4.5TWh compared to 5TWh for 2023 and gas sales volumes were 65.2m therms compared to 80.6m therms in 2023.
The directors state that the 2024 financial year “has been characterised by the stabilisation of commodity and wholesale prices”.
They state that average gas prices for the year were 83p/therm which was less than half the 174p/therm for 2023.
The directors state that the operating profits of €162m primarily reflect “the normalisation of commodity and wholesale prices with the benefit of lower prices in electricity and gas margins”.
The directors state that this was partially offset “by lower renewable PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) margins together with the benefit of the reassessment of expected credit loss provisions”.
The directors state that the decrease in revenues is “primarily due to lower non-residential and residential electricity revenue reflecting lower prices and volumes, and lower non-residential and residential gas revenue reflecting lower volumes and prices”.
Numbers employed reduced by just one to 99 and staff costs increased from €9.06m to €9.9m.
Pay to directors increased from €1m to €1.219m made up of €1.13m in emoluments and pension contributions of €85,000.
Separate accounts filed for another Energia company, Huntstown Power Company Limited show that its pre-tax profits tumbled by 87pc from €97.87m to €12.75m in the 12 months to the end of March last.
This followed revenues more than halving from €495m to €232m.
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 year and is progressing the development of a proposed data centre at its Huntstown campus in Dublin.
The directors state that the results for the year primarily reflect lower margins associated with lower plant utilisations and lower commodity prices.
On the three year contract with Eirgrid to provide 50MW of emergency gas generation capacity at the Huntstown site, the directors state that commissioning was completed in February 2024 for the plant and is now available to the system operator to provide emergency services as required.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
