Infigen revenue jumps sharply on more wind, higher electricity prices

South Australia’s high power prices haven’t been bad news for everyone. ASX-listed renewables group Infigen Energy has reported a nearly 50 per cent increase in revenue for the three months ending June 30, compared to the same period last year, due to strong winds and higher electricity prices in the southern state.

In an ASX release on Friday, Infigen said production of 406GWh for Q4 FY16 was 8 per cent or 30GWh higher than the prior corresponding period, primarily due to better wind resource across the portfolio.

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).

Revenue of $50 million for Q4 FY16 was 47 per cent, or $16 million, higher than the in Q4 FY2015, Infigen said, “primarily due to higher merchant electricity prices in South Australia and higher Large-scale Generation Certificate (LGC) prices.

To a lesser extent, the company said, the results were also due to higher production and higher electricity merchant prices in New South Wales, where it has two wind farms, Woodlawn (48MW) and Capital (140MW).

The average bundled price for the sale of electricity and LGCs was $123.3/MWh, up $32.9/MWh or 36% on the previous corresponding period, Infigen said.

Wind generators have benefited from the higher wholesale prices in South Australia, and elsewhere in the country, which have been caused mostly by higher gas prices.

Last week, RenewEconomy revealed that gas generators in South Australia, many of them old and inefficient, cashed in in a big way during the first weeks of July.

Infigen will release its audited full year FY16 financial results on 29 August 2016.