- TOTAL CAPITAL INVESTMENT OF €1.2 BILLION IN CRITICAL LONG TERM ELECTRICITY INFRASTRUCTURE
- DIVIDEND OF €1.4 BILLION TO IRISH EXCHEQUER OVER LAST TEN YEARS.
Thursday 21 March 2019
Financial Highlights
- Capital Investment – €1.2 billion
- Operating Profit before exceptional item - €455 million
- Profit after exceptional items, interest and tax – €60 million
- Dividends - €35 million bringing to €1.4 billion paid to the Irish Exchequer in the last ten years
ESB Group today published its 2018 Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2018 (FY 2018) reporting an operating profit before exceptional items of €455 million, profit after exceptional items, interest and tax of €60 million and capital investment of €1.2 billion in long term electricity infrastructure. Despite challenging market conditions, which required ESB to reflect a €140 million exceptional non-cash impairment charge on generation assets, 2018 saw the delivery of satisfactory underlying financial performance as it transitions to a low carbon energy future. ESB continues to deliver reliable and safe electricity networks to 3.1 million customers, provide significant long term savings to over one million Electric Ireland residential electricity and gas customers and invest in critical electricity infrastructure including low-carbon and renewable generation.
ESB’s Brighter Future Strategy through to 2030 commits ESB to leading the transition to reliable, affordable low-carbon energy for the benefit of its customers and the economy. This is demonstrated by:
- investing in low-carbon generation (€250 million in 2018);
- expanding and enhancing of the electricity network to accommodate more distributed energy resources; and
- empowering customers to take more control of their energy use through smart energy services for homes and businesses.
Commenting on the results Pat Fenlon, ESB’s Chief Financial Officer ( CFO), said: “In continued challenging market conditions, ESB delivered a satisfactory financial performance in 2018 with profit after exceptional items, interest and tax of €60 million and almost €1.2 billion of energy infrastructure investments. ESB continued to focus on delivering long term value and investing in critical long term electricity infrastructure for the benefit of our customers, shareholders and the wider Irish economy. ESB’s diversified businesses and solid financial position ensure it is well placed to meet the challenges that lie ahead and remain at the forefront of the energy sector in an all-islands market.”
Shareholders
ESB declared a dividend of €35 million in respect of 2018. Total dividends paid to the Irish Exchequer over the past ten years amount to €1.4 billion.
Customers
As part of its ongoing commitment to its customers, Electric Ireland has focussed on minimising the impact of increasing energy costs and delivering the best long term value in the market for residential customers. Electric Ireland:
- offers the cheapest standard electricity unit rate in the market;
- applied a winter price freeze for the second winter in a row when bills are typically at their highest;
- has almost one million customers on enduring discounts which rewards our loyal customers year after year;
- introduced an innovative range of products, including residential solar power and the Smarter Home bundle, which provide customers with simple ideas to help make their lives easier.
ESB’s networks businesses (ESB Networks and NIE Networks) continued to focus on customer service and delivering reliable and safe electricity over increasingly smarter networks to 3.1 million homes, farms and businesses (including 30,000 new customers connected in 2018) in Ireland. Also in 2018 a number of major storms had a serious impact on the network and our customers. The arrival of Storm Ali in particular, at a time when most trees were still in leaf, resulted in significant levels of network damage from falling timber and required an enormous restoration response from ESB Networks and NIE Networks crews to restore power to almost 320,000 homes and businesses and make the network safe again.
Irish Economy
ESB invested €900 million in energy infrastructure investments during 2018.
ESB contributes €1.7 billion annually to the Irish economy through dividends, investments, taxes and jobs. ESB provides significant employment both directly, with over
7,800 employees, and indirectly through contractors and service providers.
The ESB Group Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2018 can be found here
Ends
For Further Information please contact:
Kieran O'Neill, ESB Media Relations Manager, Mobile: 00-353-87-9349200 kieran.oneill@esb.ie
About ESB
ESB operates across the electricity market: from generation, through transmission and distribution to the supply of customers with an expanding presence in the British generation market. In addition we extract further value through supplying gas, energy services and using our networks to carry fibre for telecommunications. ESB is the owner of the distribution and transmission networks in the Republic of Ireland (via ESB Networks) and Northern Ireland (via Northern Ireland Electricity Networks Ltd). In 2018 it had a 38% share of generation in the all-island market (via Generation and Trading) and a 33% share of electricity supply in the all-island market (via Electric Ireland) with 1.25 million customer accounts.
ESB contributes €1.7 billion annually to the Irish economy through dividends, investments, taxes and jobs. ESB provides significant employment both directly, with over 7,800 employees, and indirectly through contractors and service providers. Read more here