But as this was Contact's first result since adopting the New Zealand equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (NZIFRS), an accurate comparison with the December 2004 was not available.

Contact chief executive David Hunt said Contact's strong financial performance for the period reflected a combination of higher wholesale electricity prices, strong thermal generation output and a good balance between Contact's generation and retail businesses.

The result was particularly pleasing given that Contact's large thermal station at Otahuhu was out of service for seven weeks during the period for a major planned overhaul, Hunt said.

Low hydro lake inflows combined with outages of key thermal generation in the market resulted in higher wholesale electricity prices. The average electricity price Contact received for generation was NZ$81.70 per MWh, up 148% on the same 2004 period.

Contact's total electricity generation was 5591GWh, up 11%. Though its hydro generation was down 30% because of lower lake inflows, Contact was able to ramp up its Taranaki and Auckland gas-fired power stations to produce 58% more electricity.

Contact's gas revenue from wholesale customers was NZ$41.5 million, up 51%, driven by a 2.6 petajoule increase in wholesale gas sales.

But gas revenue from retail customers declined from NZ$70.3 million to NZ$64.7 million and gas customer numbers dropping by 8% from 88,000 to 81,000.

However, Contact's total retail electricity customer base rose slightly to 512,000, up from 509,000 as at 31 December 2004.

Contact also declared a fully imputed interim dividend of 10 cents per share.