Listed power company Trustpower has boosted its full year profit, due to higher wholesale electricity prices.
The Tauranga-based firm made $131.7 million for the year to the end of March, an increase of 17% compared with the previous year.
Customer numbers fell 5% to $209,000, but Trustpower chief executive Vince Hawksworth says its catchment areas avoided the dry spells that plagued the major hydro lakes, allowing it to sell surplus power at stronger prices.
"We were fortunate with hydro inflows into our particular catchments," he says. "In the last quarter of the financial year, our ability to generate when prices were high on the wholesale market was also good".
Trustpower owns 36 small to medium size hydro generating stations and two wind farms in New Zealand.
