Strong profit boosts Hydro

GOOD rains, strong trading conditions and more customers have increased Hydro Tasmania’s underlying profit for 2018-19 by almost 20 per cent above budget to $195 million.

The annual report, released yesterday, shows that the result will deliver a dividend of $120 million to the Tasmanian budget for the 2018-19 financial year.

Senior executives’ salaries totalled over $4 million for the financial year including Chief Executive Officer Steve Davy on $629,000 and Chief Operating Officer Evangelista Albertini on $480,000.

Hydro Tasmania invested more than $105 million into modernising and maintaining its assets during 2018-19. It also provided support to TasNetworks in their development of the proposed Marinus Link second interconnector between Tasmania and Victoria.

The report also mentioned that the disputes between Hydro Tasmania and Basslink Pty Ltd relating to the 2015 undersea cable fault have been referred to arbitration. The Basslink interconnector has been operated at a maximum capacity of 500 MW since December 2017.

Major Hydro transmission and generation assets were threatened by the January 2019 bushfires.

Chairman Grant EveryBurns said the annual report showed Hydro Tasmania was in a healthy position.

“While Australia’s energy landscape continues to be volatile, the business has performed well, with a focus on meeting the needs of Tasmanians, keeping costs as low as possible and building longterm security for the state,” Mr Every-Burns said.

“We comfortably exceeded our storage targets, with 40 per cent at the start of summer and just over 34 per cent at the end of June.

“At the same time, we continued to map out an exciting energy future for the state through the Battery of the Nation initiative, which will not only enhance Australia’s future electricity supply, but potentially create thousands of jobs in Tasmania in the process.”