Trustpower affirmed annual earnings guidance, having raised its outlook three times this financial year on strong wholesale electricity prices. Photo / File
Trustpower affirmed annual earnings guidance, having raised its outlook three times this financial year on strong wholesale electricity prices, and noted the low hydro lake levels are threatening to trigger a high-priced event in 2018.
The Tauranga-based company retained its forecast for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and fair
value adjustments to be between $255 million and $270m in the year ending March 31, although it now expects the final outcome will be around the mid-point of the range, it said in a statement.
Trustpower raised that guidance three times this financial year citing favourable trading conditions.
That forecast relies on long-run average generation volumes for the rest of the year, wholesale prices staying in line with forward pricing, normal temperatures and consumption and a customer base of between 255,000 and 260,000, including 90,000 to 95,000 telecommunications customers.
The electricity generator-retailer reported an average spot price of electricity generated of $88 per megawatt hour in the December quarter, up from $46/MWh a year earlier, and taking the year-to-date average to $89/MWh. New Zealand generation was down 8 percent to 484 Gigawatt hours from a year earlier, although the year-to-date tally was still up 14 per cent at 1,809 GWh.
