Power of Central Hawke’s Bay’s results
Central Hawke’s Bay consumer-owned electricity distributor, Centralines Limited, reports that it has produced a solid result for the 2020/21 financial year.
Centralines chairman, Ian Walker, said the company continued to support unprecedented growth in Central Hawke’s Bay by delivering a reliable electricity supply, investing in network growth and providing a healthy return on investment for its power consumers and shareholders.
“This year’s strong network performance — driven by effective asset management practices and our highly capable team — meant we well and truly performed within the limits set by the Commerce Commission for the quality and reliability of electricity supply to customers.
“We connected 179 new consumers during the year, as well as 40 solar distributed generators to the network — both of which were increases on the previous year, and reflective of the unprecedented growth Central Hawke’s Bay is experiencing.”
He said as a consumer-owned company, Centralines is committed to an exciting journey towards a sustainable future for Central Hawke’s Bay, especially on the back of a year with many hurdles.
“We have remained very mindful of the challenges our consumers and communities have continued to face following another year of annual rainfall significantly below historic averages, as well as the ongoing impacts of Covid-19 through heightened uncertainty, disrupted supply chains and risks to health with the virus still rampant globally.”
Notwithstanding this, Centralines delivered another strong financial result this year, with total revenue (pre-discounts) of $17.5 million and a net profit after tax of $3.8m.
The company also returned $1.55m to its consumers through a discount on energy consumed, while the Central Hawke’s Bay Consumers Power Trust, through its ownership of Centralines, made a dividend distribution to consumers during the year, totalling more than $3.7m.
Central Hawke’s Bay Consumers Power Trust chairman, Alistair Setter, said the trust continues to be very happy with the performance of Centralines — operationally and financially.
“The company has once again delivered on its commitment to outstanding network performance, which we know is very important to our consumers.
“We are confident that sustained growth and investment in our network will position the company strongly to continue delivering on its purpose of enabling long-term prosperity for Central Hawke’s Bay through dynamic energy and infrastructure solutions.”
Walker said with growth come challenges and opportunities.
“We are pleased to be playing an important role in the social and economic development of Central
Hawke’s Bay through our growing workforce — with four trainee line mechanics and a new apprentice electrician appointed during the year.”
Centralines is a consumer-owned and operated electricity lines business, owned by the Central Hawke’s Bay Consumers Power Trust on behalf of electricity consumers in Central Hawke’s Bay.
As one of 27 distribution companies in New Zealand, it distributes electricity to customers across the Central Hawke’s Bay region.
The Centralines network has more than $54m worth of assets, is 1700km in length, and supplies about 8500 connection points.
“We are also constructing a new fit for purpose depot that so that our growing workforce can safely and efficiently provide the service levels, as well as emergency response and resilience the community expects from us,” says Walker.
“Our sponsorship and donations portfolio remains an important tool for supporting our region, and during the year we pledged $156,000 in community funding to more than 40 local organisations that support the wellbeing of our rural community.”
He said “people” are central to a sustainable future.
“We are building on our focus for our workforce, consumers and community by developing deeper local partnerships with stakeholders across the region, including Central Hawke’s Bay District Council, iwi, and hapu¯ .
“We believe that working together will enable us to support the ambitions and sustainably meet the expectations of current and future generations.”