Hydro Tas solid profit may be last for a while
Tasmania's Energy Minister Matthew Groom says Hydro Tasmania has defied “doom and gloom” predictions to post a big before-tax profit.
The state-owned generator made $62.3 million before tax and revaluations in 2014-15.
It is a steep drop after two years of profits over $200 million.
Hydro achieved $18 million worth of savings by reducing about 50 full-time positions from its workforce.
The Energy Minister told Parliament the relatively reduced profit was well above the pessimistic predictions of Labor and the Greens.
“When the carbon tax was abolished there was a doom and gloom forecast by those opposite with statements of a dark day for Tasmania,” he said.
“They were suggesting that it was not possible for Hydro Tasmania to have a positive future in the absence of the carbon tax.
“What we've seen proven since the abolition of the carbon tax is, in fact, that Hydro's got a strong future, a very strong future.”
Hydro’s result should provide a $25 million dividend for Government coffers.
Hydro Tasmania CEO Stephen Davy says he does not expect the financial performance of the business to improve.
“Despite returning a better result than forecast at this time last year, we're not expecting to repeat that in the current financial year,” he said.
“There are several factors contributing to this, including lower than expected [water] inflows in September and October.”
Hydro chairman Grant Every-Burns says it has been a rough year.
“The demand for energy generally has flattened across the national electricity market and that's made it also a difficult trading environment,” he said.
“We've now got a very strong focus on cost control.”
Rainfall was much lower than expected this year, which contributed in part to a 31 per cent reduction in power generation compared to the year before.
Electricity distributor TasNetworks tabled its annual report in the same week, which included a $112.9 million after-tax profit.
From that, the Government will reap $63.2 million in dividends.