KEY POINTS:
State-owned power company Meridian Energy said today it would pay the Government a special dividend of $175 million.
The special dividend was on top of a $60.9m interim dividend also announced.
CEO Keith Turner reported a December half year net profit for Meridian of $94m, compared with a restated $116.6m profit a year ago.
In 2006, the Government used the proceeds of an $800m special dividend from Meridian to help fund a $1.3 billion transport package announced in that year's budget.
The state-owned enterprise, the largest of the three state energy companies, has paid the Government $2.1 billion in dividends since its inception in 1999.
Meridian's generation were revalued up from $4.83b to $6.47b.
That pushed up depreciation and affected the bottom line, Keith Turner said.
Meridian has a revaluation reserve of $2.75b, up from $1.66b a year ago. It has $676.5m of debt.
The company earned $253.7m before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and financial instruments (EBITDAF) against $245.7m a year earlier.
Hydro inflows on Meridian's dams were near average but as the period started with lower-than average lake storage levels, lower levels were carried through to December.
National demand for electricity continued to grow, rising around 1.5 per cent in the year.
Meridian delivered 30 per cent of the country's total electricity during the period generating 6.078 GWh, up slightly from 6.048 GWh in the 2006 period.
Although generation was lower than planned, electricity revenues were maintained, at least in part, by higher prices as a result of the lower lake levels.
Mr Turner, who is soon to retire, said the sudden and unexpected closure of the HVDC Pole 1 link across the Cook Strait was likely to have a major effect on prices during the coming winter.
"Peak capacity constraints for power sent north will push up North Island prices over time while constraints for power sent south will reduce the dry year reserve cover for the South Island, and also push up prices."
During the period Meridian began Project West Wind at Makara near Wellington, which it believed would become one of the most productive wind farms in the world with a load factor approaching 48 per cent.
It also finished upgrading Manapouri, the country's largest hydro station, so it generated 730MW of power against 585MW previously.
- NZPA
