Aurora Energy’s Annual Report shows a net profit after tax of $7.8M, eclipsing the forecast by 550 per cent for the financial year ending June 30, 2022.

The report explains this positive result as driven by higher growth related consumer connections revenue and below budget non-network operating expenditure.  

Last year's profit was $0.68M.

Aurora chief executive Richard Fletcher said the company has made significant progress on upgrading and maintaining the electricity network.

“Aside from some hot spots where we are targeting investment, overall, the reliability of supply is improving in most areas of the network,” he said in a media statement released yesterday (December 6).

The Annual Report can be found on Aurora Energy’s website here.

Highlights for Central can be found on page 22 and include improvements to St Bathans, Clyde, Dairy Creek and Omakau. 

Unplanned and planned outages have been an important issue within the Central community. 

In the report Aurora said progress is being made on the implementation of a new outage management system, “which will greatly improve the accessibility and quality of information about unplanned outages”. 

Aurora’s year in numbers

“Our hard work is starting to pay off, with a substantial proportion of end-of-life assets either replaced or upgraded, and we’re also seeing ongoing improvements to processes, systems and data capture,” Richard said. 

Capital expenditure in 2022 was $83.0M, it was $76.7M last year. Network operations and maintenance costs increased by $0.6M to $20.2M.  

The company is part-way through a five-year, $563M investment programme.

A shareholder dividend will not be issued as the company said it will prioritise network investment. 

The report states that while maintaining the existing network is essential, upgrading and positioning it for the future is also vital.

“A robust electricity network ensures we will meet increased demand due to growth, as well as enable the future energy choices of our communities, and how and when renewable electricity is used to support decarbonisation," Richard said.

Aurora Energy is New Zealand’s seventh largest electricity network by customer connections, supplying electricity to more than 93,500 homes, farms and businesses in Dunedin, Central and Lakes. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dunedin City Holdings Limited, owned by the Dunedin City Council