Infigen revenue jumps again on big winds, high electricity prices

South Australia’s high electricity prices and wild weather continue to bear fruit for ASX-listed renewables group Infigen Energy, which has reported a 56 per cent increase in revenue for the quarter, year on year, due to strong winds and higher merchant power prices in the southern state.

Infigen reported on Monday revenue of $62.8 million for the three months ended 30 September 2016 (Q1 FY17) and an 11 per cent increase in wind energy production compared to the prior corresponding period.

In a statement on the ASX, the company said the 44GWh boost to production was primarily due to better wind resource in New South Wales and South Australia (SA).

The 56 per cent or $22.5 million increase in revenue was attributed to that increase in production, as well as to higher merchant electricity prices in SA and to a lesser extent in NSW, and higher large-scale generation certificate (LGC) prices.

The average bundled price for the sale of electricity and LGCs was $143.71/MWh, up $41.21/MWh or 40% on the previous corresponding period.

It’s another positive result for Infigen, which last quarter reported an increase in revenue of 47 per cent, compared to Q4 FY15.

Earlier this month, the company’s long-serving managing director, Miles George, announced he would retire from the position at the end of the calendar year.

Taking his place will be Ross Rolfe, a former coal and gas industry executive of many years’ experience, who has also served on the Infigen board for the past five years.

In an interview with RenewEconomy, George described the choice of Ross Rolfe as “a great one” and said his background in fossil fuels was not cause for concern.

“He has been on our board for the last five years and has an intimate knowledge of our strategy. His intention is to continue that and to build on that and to take the business forward… and to continue developing our pipeline of assets.”

Infigen’s development pipeline comprises approximately 1,100 megawatts of large-scale wind and solar projects spread across five states in Australia. In South Australia it has three operational wind farms: Lake Bonney 2 (159MW) Lake Bonney 1 (80.5MW) and Lake Bonney 3 (39MW).