Two Energia firms in Republic generate over €44m in profits

Two of energy group Energia’s businesses in the Republic generated more than €44 million in profits in the 12 months to March 31st, new figures show.

The privately backed group sells electricity and gas to customers around Ireland and owns the Huntstown Power generating plants in Co Dublin.

New accounts show that Energia Customer Solutions Ltd, which supplies electricity and gas to customers in the Republic, grew profits by 45 per cent to €28.8 million from €19.2 million the previous year.

Separately, figures for Huntstown Power, which operates one of two plants at the site, show the electricity generator almost trebled profits to €15.4 million from €5.2 million over the same time period.

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Both companies operate independently of each other, but are part of the Energia Group, ultimately owned by US investor I Squared Capital.

The group's other businesses include Power NI, which supplies energy to customers in Northern Ireland, and a renewables operation whose wind farms generate 277 mega watts of electricity.

Power stations

Huntstown Power’s accounts only cover Energia’s Huntstown 1 unit, one of two plants at the north Dublin site.

They do not cover the group's second plant, Huntstown 2, owned by Energia Power Generation Ltd, which was out of action due to a fault from early 2021 to October.

Huntstown Power’s profits grew on the back of a €3.5 million increase in sales to €118.7 million, and on a €6 million fall in costs.

The company earns revenues from selling electricity to the all-Ireland wholesale market and from “capacity payments”, paid to plants for being available to generate power when needed.

Those payments help cover plants’ fixed costs. All electricity customers fund them through network charges on their bills.

Energia Customer Solutions Ltd’s accounts show that it recruited 65,100 homes and businesses during the year, bringing its total number of clients to 330,000. More than 55,000 of those new customers were domestic electricity users. It boosted overall non-residential customers to 53,200 from 49,400.

The extra customers helped add €20.4 million to sales, which totalled €948.4 million during the 12-month period.

Prices

Operating profit grew more than 40 per cent to €35.3 million in the 12 months ended March 31st from €24.2 million, reflecting lower costs and higher margins, the company says. The business paid a €30 million dividend to its immediate parent, Energia Group ROI Holdings DAC.

Energia cut electricity and gas prices in June 2020 and froze them until March last year. The company increased charges in April and again in both July and September.

Power companies blame surging natural gas prices on world markets for their decisions to increase charges last year.

Commenting on the results, the group said they were “in line with expectations for the reporting period and are reflective of the scale of the company’s ongoing investments and service”.

Energia Group says that it has invested more than €1 billion in is businesses across Ireland. The company has 750,000 gas and electricity customers overall.