BORD NA MÓNA saw its profits slide last year as it set aside millions of euro to pay for the decommissioning of old power plants.
According to its annual report, published yesterday, the semi-state company made a full-year profit of €17.3 million in the 12 months to the end of March 2016.
That was about half of what it reported the year before, when it made a €35 million profit.
The fall in profits was due in large part to a significant write-down of the value of two thermal power stations in Edenderry. Bord na Móna said that this was due to lower forecast electricity prices.
The firm noted that electrical sales by the Edenderry power plant fell by €4.7 million in the 2016 financial year “due to a planned extended outage and lower prices for electricity”. The plant, located near Edenderry, Co Offaly, employs about 180 people.
Uncertainty over Edenderry
Bord na Móna, which handles the state’s peat harvesting, said that the plant is no longer able to take advantage of subsidies from the Public Service Obligation levy as of December 2015, which hit earnings.
In a statement published with the annual report, the group’s chairman John Horgan said that there is “considerable uncertainty existed on the extension of planning permission for the Edenderry power plant”.