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ESB Group announces €357m profit amid soaring energy costs

ESB Group announces €357m profit amid soaring energy costs
Electricity pylons in Lessay, France. Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty

ESB Group has reported an operating profit of €357m for the first six months of the year.

This is a decline of €6 million on the same period in 2021.

However, ESB said this was due to regulated network tariff changes and losses incurred in ESB’s customer solutions business and foreign exchange movements, the Irish Examiner reports.

The loss was offset by higher energy margins in ESB’s Generation business.

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Profit after taxed, and exceptional items hit €390 million, three times higher than the figure of €128 million for the same period last year.

ESB Group said: "ESB’s generation and supply businesses are required to operate separately, so increased profits from ESB’s generation business cannot be used to offset costs incurred by Electric Ireland."

In the past decade, ESB stated it had invested more than €10 billion in energy infrastructure and paid over €1.2 billion in dividends.

ESB’s chief financial officer Geraldine Heavey pointed to volatility and high wholesale market prices, which she said are an ongoing key feature of energy markets.

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She said ESB's profits provide "the basis for continued strong investment in energy infrastructure to decarbonise electricity".

The war in Ukraine has seen energy prices soar, particularly in Europe, in recent months.

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