Lower customer power usage due to milder weather, alongside softer energy prices and higher gas supply costs, has fed into a dip in still-solid earnings by one of Australia's biggest energy retailers.
AGL Energy reported an annual underlying net profit - which strips out some one-off and volatile items - of $631 million, which was down almost two per cent from the year before.
The result was in the middle of the group's guidance for an outcome between $580 million and $680 million for the year ended June 30.
"We were well within our guidance range," chief executive Damien Nicks told AAP on Wednesday.
"So again, a very solid result because it had been, I would say, a milder year from a weather perspective and a probably softer year from an energy markets perspective.
"May and June were some of the mildest weather we've seen in a long time."
AGL, which generates and sells electricity and gas to residential and business customers, reported a bottom-line net profit of $756 million, up from $112 million in the previous year.
That result was driven by a one-off gain of $268 million from an asset sale and other one-off items.
However, AGL also said its results were supported by stronger consumer electricity and gas margins.
"What we saw was an increase in customer numbers - that was the major driver there," Mr Nicks said.
"So we grew our customer numbers ... and that returned our margins to more sustainable levels."
AGL lifted total customer services to 4.6 million, up 92,000 from the previous year, while customer satisfaction rose to 84.1 points from 81.6.
Asked about customer hardship cases, Mr Nicks said AGL had seen a "small" increase, "as you'd expect this year".
Many households are struggling with cost-of-living pressures and higher borrowing rates.
"We are acutely aware of the cost of living pressures our customers are facing, as you see playing through the broader economy," Mr Nicks said.
AGL has seen a small increase in its net bad-debt expense to 1.6 per cent, from 1.3 per cent.
Full-year revenue fell 5.2 per cent to $13.6 billion, although AGL did deliver $30 million in cost savings and kept its costs broadly flat.
AGL continues to pivot its portfolio from coal-fired plants to renewables and batteries as it steps up to meet the climate change-driven energy transition.
It has 930 megawatts of grid-scale batteries installed and managed, as well as 1.7 gigawatts contracted or in delivery.
It is also in talks with potential investors for more than 2GW of renewable projects.
Looking ahead, Mr Nicks continues to see big opportunities for the company to support the energy needs of power-hungry artificial intelligence data centres.
"The big opportunity, which I think is enormous right now for energy markets, is the growth of data centres," he said.
"We are starting to see that play through ... the opportunity to have data centres at our locations is also enormous."
AGL was looking to line up long-term contracts and getting assets built to support that demand, Mr Nicks said.
AGL declared a final dividend of 26 cents per share, taking the total for the year to 50 cents.
Its shares were up by almost five per cent in morning trading to $8.63.
Australian Associated Press
