Rain helps Meridian's profit to rise $23.6m

Buoyed by wet weather, power generator Meridian Energy has made a healthy $132.9 million profit for the year, up $23.6 million from last year.

Abandoning the Project Aqua hydro generation scheme cost $38.6 million, but chairman Francis Small said this would have been two to three times greater had planning gone to the next "detailed design stage".

The firm is paying its Government owner a $17.4 million dividend.

Meridian makes its money two ways - from generating electricity, mostly in South Island hydro stations, which it sells into the wholesale market. It also buys from the wholesale market, selling to residential and business customers.


Chief executive Keith Turner is becoming increasingly prominent in his promotion of wind power as the answer to future shortfalls.

Other industry leaders, whom he refers to as his "thermal colleagues", are touting coal and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) as likely fuels for new power stations.

In July, Meridian opened the country's biggest windfarm at Te Apiti, near Palmerston North, and Turner believes expanded wind power will bring cheaper new generation.

* Transpower, the state-owned enterprise that owns and runs the national power grid, also published its annual results yesterday.

It earned an after-tax profit of $64.7 million, up $8.2 million from the year before. It is paying the Government a $40 million dividend. Paul Panckhurst