(CORRECTS H2980 NETWORKED YESTERDAY - REMOVES COMMENT ABOUT CONTACT'S FUTURE PROFIT FROM PAR 3)

Wellington, Oct 2 NZPA - Genesis Energy increased its profit to $99.1 million in the year ended June 30 from a restated $89.5 million last year as it generated more power.

The state owned electricity and gas supplier did not signal any price increases, saying it sets prices region by region over a period of time. Contact Energy has announced price hikes of at least 10 percent, while planning to almost double directors' fees.

Genesis said it is continuing to attract new customers. It has not yet declared a final dividend.

Genesis owns the Huntly power station as well as hydro stations at Tongariro and Lake Waikaremoana and has 700,000 electricity and gas customers mostly in the North Island.

The company said revenue increased to $2.48 billion from $1.77 billion and it generated 9126 gigawatt hours (GWh), up from 7992 GWh.

The company increased output at Huntly when South Island hydro lake levels were decreasing in the second half of the year. Thermal volumes increased to 7575GWh from 6318GWh last year and the company said the higher level of thermal generation increased its costs.

Though the company burns coal to make electricity it argued it used more gas by operating Huntly's unit five, a 400MW combined cycle gas turbine.

Overall there was 13 percent reduction in the carbon intensity of the company's generation business.

Chairman Brian Corban said the high generation levels would not have been achieved without the hard work of production staff and excellent reliability of the 25-year-old Huntly units one to four and the much newer Mitsubishi combined cycle gas turbine.

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