Genesis Energy Limited (GNE) Q4 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Kia ora, and welcome to Genesis Energy's FY24 results presentation. I'm Malcolm Johns, Chief Executive, and I'm joined by Emma Ertley, our interim CFO. FY24 was challenging, but we're delivering our strategy. We were challenged by hydrology, major unplanned outages, and New Zealand's gas shortage. However, the portfolio showed its resilience, with earnings down but defended. We delivered all the Gen 35 strategic objectives we said we would in FY24. Retail reset, Ford Opex growth arrested, more renewables, HFOs and the Stage 1 battery at Huntly Power Station. What was already clear to us, but became clear to everybody in 2024, was that energy security is essential, even in a high renewables grid. Under current strategy, Genesis can move another 500 megawatts of baseload generation to flexible generation at Huntly Power Station and make it available for energy security by FY28. Executing our strategy is the fastest and most economic way for New Zealand to deliver greater energy security for winter peaks and dry years with low wind. I will speak more about this later in the presentation. Before we get to our results, I think it's important to discuss the recent marking conditions and the steps that Genesis has taken to play our part through a challenging time when Mother Nature failed to show up. New Zealand has always had dry years, but the swing between wet and dry appears to be becoming more frequent. The impact of this dry year has been exacerbated by large swings in wind generation. Natural gas fields are declining faster than forecast, and New Zealand is now structurally gas short. The result is more volatile electricity prices, especially at the short and long ends of the range. However, the current market structure meant 99.99% of Genesis customers were on fixed...