{"id":564503,"date":"2026-08-10T08:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T08:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/564503\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T08:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T08:14:13","slug":"contact-energy-lifts-profit-31-ties-up-with-cdc-for-giant-taranaki-data-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/564503\/","title":{"rendered":"Contact Energy lifts profit 31%, ties up with CDC for giant Taranaki data centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contact and CDC \u2013 which is half-owned by Infratil \u2013 would seek resource consent for a 250 megawatt data centre to be built near the site of Contact\u2019s Taranaki Combined Cycle gas power plant, which was retired earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The data centre would be supported by a battery storage development, Contact said.<\/p>\n

A Fitch survey released earlier last month said all of New Zealand\u2019s data centres today consume 172MW, with a further 89MW was under construction.<\/p>\n

The yet-to-be-fully-funded<\/a> Datagrid \u201cAI factory\u201d proposed for Southland has an initial 280MW design, which could increase to 1GW. Mercury Energy paid $53m for a 12.7% stake in Datagrid, which will be used for initial earthworks while Datagrid continues its bid to find billions to build the data centre proper.<\/p>\n

The generator-retailer said its improved operating result was driven by a significant lift in renewable output, up 2.9 terawatt hours (TWh) including power purchase agreements (PPAs).<\/p>\n

This reflected the addition of the Manawa hydro assets and its contracted PPAs (wind and geothermal), which together contributed 2.4 TWh, with a full period of generation at Contact\u2019s new Te Huka 3 geothermal plant.<\/p>\n

Higher renewable output supported increased contracted sales.<\/p>\n

With national hydro inflows in 2026 at 118% of mean, and New Zealand\u2019s hydro storage ending the period 135% of mean, market conditions contrasted sharply with those of 2025, which included the lean winter 2024 period.<\/p>\n

Average pricing on electricity sold was lower at $140\/MWh, down 11% from $157\/MWh in FY25, reflecting the normalisation of market conditions from a challenging 2025, it said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/p>\n

CFD (contract for difference) sales were at lower prices, <\/p>\n

Contact spent less on gas purchases and acquired generation, costs of which were more expensive in 2025 when fuel was scarce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2026 financial year has been transformational for Contact, with the completion of the Manawa acquisition and the welcoming of its people and assets,\u201d chief executive Mike Fuge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strong performance of the combined entity has set us up well as we move forward to execute the Contact31+ strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among other things, Contact31+ involves expanding Contact\u2019s leadership in geothermal generation.<\/p>\n

In August 2025, Contact entered into a 10-year agreement with Genesis for 50MW of Huntly Firming Options (HFOs), mirroring Genesis\u2019 agreements reached in parallel with Meridian and Mercury.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollectively the agreements help keep Huntly\u2019s Rankine units operational in the event of future supply constraints in a dry year,\u201d Contact said.<\/p>\n

Contact declared a final dividend of 24 cents per share, taking the annual dividend declared to 40c.<\/p>\n

Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets, the primary sector and energy. He joined the Herald in 2011.<\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our\u00a0Business newsletter<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contact and CDC \u2013 which is half-owned by Infratil \u2013 would seek resource consent for a 250 megawatt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[39725,24812,674,8325,1550,34518,16579,3105,1667,8815,2082,13313,42,25619,43,6046,5340,312,76839,16715,45666,40,38,41,39,810,102,19135],"class_list":["post-564503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-39725","tag-australias","tag-building","tag-cdc","tag-centre","tag-centres","tag-contact","tag-data","tag-energy","tag-explore","tag-for","tag-giant","tag-headlines","tag-lifts","tag-news","tag-potential","tag-profit","tag-says","tag-stratford","tag-taranaki","tag-ties","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-up","tag-with","tag-working"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}