Meridian also pointed to its customer sales volumes growing 6 per cent.
"The Board declared a final ordinary dividend of 11.55 cents per share, 3 per cent higher than the previous year," Meridian said.
"This brings the total ordinary dividends declared in FY22 to 17.40 cents per share, also 3 per cent higher than the previous year."
Swanepoel said the company seemed "well positioned for another positive year" which started with plenty of water and softer wholesale prices still well above long-run averages.
He said key risks were regulation, electricity demand from consumers and dairy conversion and dry weather.
Meridian's share price fell by about 3 per cent following its annual results announcement.
Looking at specific projects underway, Meridian said its board approved an increase in capital expenditure on its Harapaki wind farm in the Hawke's Bay to help cover escalating costs from bad weather the inflation.
The wind farm is on track to be fully operational by June 2024.
At the Ruakākā Energy Park in Northland, Meridian is tendering for its 100/200MWh Battery Energy Storage System. It is also planning a 75MW solar farm at the site.
The battery will increase South-North Island power transfer, support grid stability and supply electricity regionally and nationally, Meridian said.
"Our development team is working hard to get consents approved for the battery by the end of September 2022, with construction projected to start in 2023 and completion in late 2024. We aim to lodge consents for the solar farm by early 2023, with construction anticipated early 2024 and completion early 2025."
Meridian also said its contract with NZAS expires at the end of 2024.
With aluminium prices up, there was a chance NZAS majority shareholder Rio Tinto could decide to keep the Tiwai Point smelter open.
Meridian said it would only be interested in a signing a new contract with NZAS if it addressed issues around remediating the site, made a long-term commitment to New Zealand, paid a "sustainable price" for its electricity, and reduced consumption in dry years for the benefit of the wider electricity system.
Meridian said work done with Transpower on the Clutha Upper Waitaki Lines Project had improved options for redistributing 5,000GWh the smelter currently consumed.
"For example, we could shift the electricity load used to better address national and even international decarbonisation via green hydrogen, or large-scale data centres," it said.
"We could also allocate the power to our drive for net carbon-zero through a scaled electrification of process heat.
"A lot can happen in 12 months – and while long-term certainty on any future NZAS contract remains desirable, it's fair to say we have a new mix of options to consider."
Meridian said green hydrogen could be used to decarbonise global industries like steel manufacturing, fertiliser manufacturing and heavy transport (trucks, trains and shipping).
It will select a partner to work with on green hydrogen later this year. Woodside Energy Group and Fortescue Future Industries was short-listed.
"One of the advantages of hydrogen is that it could add another option in the event of dry-year challenges. It could provide a large amount of New Zealand's dry-year reserve at a fraction of the cost of building new power stations," Meridian said.
"Green data projects are also in the pipeline, but progress here is slower and steadier and on a smaller scale."
