Okay, good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Origin Energy 2023 full year results presentation. I'm Frank Calabria. I'm here with the executive leadership team of Origin. You'll hear from me and Lawrie Tremaine, our CFO, as usual. Then we will follow that with questions. On slide two is an outline of the presentation today, and hopefully, for those of you who've been here before, it's a familiar format. Okay, I think the key messages on slide four are that it's been a strong earnings result and outlook for Origin. The operational performance right across the business has been strong. We've had increased earnings contributions from energy markets, integrated gas, and also Octopus Energy in the U.K.
The energy markets earnings improved following a period of under recovery of wholesale energy costs, and we are expecting further earnings growth for energy markets into the financial year 2024, and with this, that returns will recover towards earning its cost of capital. We've had a step change earnings growth in Octopus Energy, and Lawrie will take you through that a little further. It's an underlying EBITDA, our share, Origin share, for the 20% of AUD 240 million, and that's up from a loss of AUD 36 million last year, so clearly a step change. AP LNG production rebounded in the second half. We have delivered record revenue and cash distributions.
It did benefit this year from the, the elevated commodity prices, but very pleased to see the production performance over the last six months of following the, the challenging first six months associated with La Niña. What you will see today is that we've taken the step to now report Octopus results as a separate segment. Lawrie will explain that further. In relation to the proposed acquisition of Origin by a consortium that's consisting of Brookfield Asset Management and MidOcean Energy, that transaction continues to progress through the necessary regulatory steps and, in particular, the ACCC and the FIRB, or FIRB approval processes are underway.
We continue to believe that Origin is very well placed to capture value from the energy transition, we, through our advantage portfolio, being positioned for growth and also with a platform for transition investment, and we'll talk through those as we go forward. We are executing our strategy at pace to capture this value and also to achieve our ambition. The energy transition will require significant investment, and it's critical for government policy to support both investments and, most importantly, a successful and sustainable transition. Now just turning to the key financial highlights, you'll see that we've recorded a statutory profit of just over AUD 1 billion, up from a statutory loss last year.
That's been driven by the rise in underlying profit. Lawrie will take you through those drivers that have increased at AUD 300 million to AUD 747 million. On the back of that earnings growth, the Origin Return on Capital Employed is 14.2%, and that's after adding back the impairment of goodwill that we recorded last year and explained in detail why we're required to do so. Our Adjusted Net Debt remains flat. The ratio, clearly, of debt to EBITDA has improved, therefore, to 1.2x. You'll see that the Adjusted Free Cash Flow is down, despite the growth in earnings, and that's really due to higher working capital requirements, which Lawrie will take you through in further detail.
The board has declared a final fully frank dividend of AUD 0.20 per share and reflects the strength of the recovery and performance and also our confidence as we look ahead. Page six is a slide you would see before. It sets out our ambition and strategy. Our ambition is to lead the energy transition through cleaner energy and customer solutions, and our strategies are across three pillars: unrivaled customer solutions, accelerate renewable and cleaner energy, and deliver reliable energy through the transition. You'll see that we've set that framework up to continue to report against that, and it also highlights how we will create value from each of these strategies. Turning to slide seven, you'll see how we are executing on that strategy.
You'll recall that the ambitions on the right-hand side were those that we'd set out on a medium term when we launched our refresh strategy in early 2022, and we've continued to stay focused on achieving those. What you can see on the left-hand side is a number of the achievements to date. I think we will cover most of those items in some way as we go through the presentation, so I'll endeavor not to duplicate that now. Just a couple of things that may not come up in great detail later. Obviously very pleased in the case of accelerating renewables and cleaner energy to advance the Hunter Valley hydrogen opportunity, where we've been well supported by the federal government and in discussions with New South Wales government.
Really advancing that through the FEED phase and working with our partner, Orica, to advance that project. The other is in, in terms of a simplified portfolio and focus, you'll see that in terms of delivering reliable energy through the transition, the exit of upstream exploration and appraisal, which we have now achieved, the Beetaloo sale completion and the Canning and Cooper Eromanga Basin exits have been executed but are pending regulatory approval. Really highlighting, I think, those two, because we may not come up with them later. Probably the other one, just we've made some advancement on wind development, New England REZ acreage, and also the joint venture in the early feasibility license process for the Gippsland Offshore Wind tender. We continue to do that in addition to our storage and other opportunities.
Focusing on why we believe we are well-placed to capture value from the energy transition, on Slide eight, the advantage portfolio, I think it's worth recognizing that we have a leading retail business, which we'll talk through, a competitive gas supply, the largest thermal peaking fleet, which will be very important through the transition as we move away from coal towards renewables, a very high-quality APLNG gas resource. Just emphasizing the point I just made before, that we continued to simplify the portfolio, which is enabling us to focus our capital allocation into the areas that are aligned to our strategy and continue to drive our growth.
When it comes to being positioned for growth, we will cover the growth in the virtual power plant, including the value we create from that, the multiple product offerings, particularly the growth around broadband and EV, which you'll see evidence of, and also the growth businesses on Origin Zero, Origin Zero and Community Energy Services, all of which we'll touch on a little further on the slides. We'll cover in more detail, given the materiality of what's emerging in Octopus, as a growth, as a driver of growth of earnings for us, and talk about how you should think about that business. As a platform for transition investment, you can see there is a transition underway. It's a significant, in fact, staggering scale that needs to be, that needs to be delivered.
I think the way we've set up the business as a platform to enable that investment, the retail scale, having the firming generation with gas supply, the upcoming Eraring closure, and the emergence of renewables and storage, large-scale investment opportunities, really does enable us to move into that transition. In addition to that, advancing opportunities, carbon products, more in the nearer term, and obviously, the hydrogen developments, with the nearest term opportunity there being in the domestic market and the Hunter Valley, but we continue to also pursue export project as export projects as well.
Turning to Slide nine, this slide, you may recall, for those of you that were on the half-year results, shows the targeted earnings trajectory. This is a reproduction of that earnings trajectory for energy markets and Octopus that we presented at the half-year results in February, just with a few important updates. I'd focus your eyes onto the 4 dot points at the top. The first one of which is that the trajectory for the financial year 2024-2025 has now been superseded by the guidance we're providing today for the financial year 2024 for energy markets.
Those for financial year 2024 earnings guidance for Energy Markets are higher than previously expected. With that higher expectation, the trajectory, therefore, between 2024 and 2025, that we expect today as we look forward, is that there will be a reduction in electricity gross profit. Therefore, that's why you've got the dark shading on the left-hand side of the chart. What is important, I think, to remember, is that we remain committed to the medium-term earnings trajectory. You can see all of those growth and value drivers on the right-hand side. Since that update in February, we see further upside potential to the Octopus earnings, compared to the trajectory that's shown below. In relation to those growth and value drivers, I'm now going to just cover a few of the...
A key number of them over the following slides, the thermal peaking fleet, the virtual power plant, and Octopus, so that you can connect that through to strategy and value. Then there'll be further information when I come back and discuss the operational section. Turning to the next slide, the thermal peaking fleet. We've highlighted it. It is part of our advantage portfolio. We're very proud of it. We have the largest peaking fleet in the market. It covers 50% of our retail load capacity. It's underpinned by fixed gas supply and transport flexibility, and it continues to perform very well. The capacity value, as measured by the forward capacity prices that you can see on the right, has continued to grow over the last several years and will grow into FY 2024.
Those prices, we believe, reflect the higher cost to build capacity, that's really underpinning, therefore, the market price for capacity. This fleet's very valuable as the energy market transitions away from coal and renewable energy supply grows. The second value driver, very pleased to see the progress that we've made in relation to our in-house virtual power plant, which we call Loop. What you can see there is that we have grown the megawatts connected by over three times this year to 815 MW, so the team have delivered a lot of growth. We're on our way to a 2 GW ambition that we set at the time of launching the strategy by the financial year 2026.
To put that into context, in the nature of our virtual power plant, that has now in excess of 270,000 connected assets or devices that are now being operated through that virtual power plant. If you want to put 815 MW into context, it's bigger than the largest single unit of generation in the market. In terms of the way the value pools on the right-hand side, think about them as wholesale, which is moving load to times of lower prices, capacity in our ability to actually add supply and reduce demand at short notice, participating in the Frequency Control Ancillary Services markets. Also has the opportunity to create value with networks by avoiding network augmentation costs, which are more expensive.
What's very important in the relation to a virtual power plant is its relationship with customers, and a critical component is how those benefits are shared with our customers over time. Not only does it represent a very cost-effective form of capacity, but it also increases the engagement we have with our customers, and we believe delivers competitive advantage over time. Very good to see the progress we're making there. Now, turning to Octopus, and it has grown significantly and has further growth potential that is also significant. I would like people to think about Octopus as the following: it's an energy retailer, largely in the U.K., but emerging in other markets in Europe, and the U.S., and Japan.
It's also a technology platform business to utilities through its Kraken technology, which it licenses. There is a third limb to the business, which is an energy services business, which is growing, which includes EV leasing, heat pumps, and also has a large amount of renewable assets that it manages on behalf of third parties. It continues to grow that. When we talk about the retail business, it's now grown to be the second-largest retailer by customer accounts, 9.7 million customer accounts and continuing to grow. The market, which we'll describe, I'll show you a little later, it obviously went through some of the similar challenges we did 12 months ago in its own winter. You'll also see just the strength of the brand that exists. There are now 32 million accounts on Kraken.
I, I should say, contracted to be on the platform. There's a lag from when they contract them to be on the platform when they're on, when they're on, but you can see that that's also grown significantly, and it's now operational in energy markets across 10 countries, and it has actually signed its first deal with water and broadband, so expanding into further utilities. To give. It's a private company, so we're just giving us a sense for value and what's happened since the last benchmark or mark to market. The last time it raised equity, it was at a value of GBP 3.5 billion in December 2021. At which time, CPPIB invested. Since that time, it has doubled its customer accounts, including the Bulb acquisition.
It's delivered the earnings you're seeing today for the financial year 2023. It has grown contracted Kraken customer accounts by over 50%. It remains very important to us that we deliver for all stakeholders. When we turn to slide 13, you'll have seen this before. It's very important that we continue to measure our progress and hold ourselves accountable. When we look at our customers, what we do see is that our strategic NPS has declined this year. We do see it overall in the market. It does spur us on to actually continue to improve customer experience. At the same time, it's very important for us to support those customers in hardship. We have significantly increased our support this year on top of the AUD 30 million we've spent in the pre- in the financial year just gone by.
For our communities, we've once again increased our regional and indigenous procurement spend. Our foundation continues to make a meaningful contribution to education, and importantly, as part of our transition away from Eraring, we have launched an Eraring Community Investment Fund, in addition to the many other initiatives that are underway in our preparation for the closure and transition of Eraring. In relation to our planet, we received very strong support for our Climate Transition Action Plan last year. We did achieve our short-term target of reducing emissions by 9.1 million tons. They were Scope 1 emissions over the last three years.
The highlights, just it won't always be a smooth trajectory on our way to achieving our medium-term goals, as we were required to increase electricity generation from Eraring and to support the market. As a result of that, you can see that our emissions for the last 12 months, Scope 1 and 2, are up by 4%. We remain very focused on our targets that we've set, and we continue to invest and advance our transition ambitions, as you can see through our strategy, and one of those is the investment in the stage one Eraring Battery, which is underway. We also reduced operational emissions, flaring emissions, by 35%, which is a great achievement by our integrated gas team.
For our people, our safety performance improved, not where it needs to be, but has improved. Our employee engagement improved, we grew female senior leaders, we launched our second Reconciliation Action Plan. 93% of our Eraring employees now have individual support plans in place as part of our preparations for closure. Just turning to slide 14. The energy infrastructure challenge before us is staggering. It requires ambitious goals, coordination across governments, industry, and market operators. It requires good policy and effective execution. We also recognize it needs leadership from companies like Origin, and we certainly do relish that opportunity. It is critical, however, that policy supports the investment required and to deliver a sustainable energy transition. There will be substantial investment that's needed in renewables, transmission, short and long-duration storage.
A capacity mechanism will be critically important to enable investment in gas-fired generation, which will be needed as part of the mix, in addition to the other storage technologies as we grow renewables, and it will also be important in, ensuring the orderly transition away from coal. Just noting the comments there on the coal policy that were enacted during the energy crisis, they have placed downward pressure on electricity prices, and they also did ensure supply to Eraring during a critical period. I will now pass over to Lawrie, and then I'll come back and we will go into a bit further depth on the operational review.
Thanks, Frank. Good morning, everyone. The underlying profit bridge on slide 16 shows an increase to AUD 747 million, as Frank said, AUD 340 million higher than the prior year, with a positive contribution from each of our businesses. The recovery of earnings in energy markets was a key driver, along with continuing strong commodity prices, underpinning earnings at APLNG. Our share of net profit at Octopus was AUD 139 million, compared to an AUD 88 million loss in the prior year. Tax on underlying earnings increased by AUD 543 million due to the stronger energy markets earnings and tax on unfranked dividends from APLNG. Moving to cash flow on slide 17.
Operating cash flow for the year reflects the unwind of the impacts, extremely high commodity and pool prices at the end of the last financial year, had on working capital and collateral balances. Very high pool prices in June 2022, resulted in large creditor position with AEMO, reducing network working capital. Very high commodity prices at June 2022 also resulted in high futures exchange collateral inflows in that year. These working capital and collateral cash flow benefits in 2022 have unwound in 2023, with lower pool and commodity prices. Capital expenditure was AUD 139 million higher, mainly due to early spend on the 460 MW battery investment at Eraring, investment in renewable development opportunities, and ash dam stabilization and related expenditures at Eraring.
We made further equity contributions to Octopus Energy of AUD 173 million to maintain our 20% ownership. Finally, we received AUD 70 million net proceeds in the year for the sale of our Beetaloo equity interest. Slide 18 further demonstrates the impact of working capital, futures collateral, and also the LGC shortfall charge on energy markets cash conversion. This chart shows energy markets, EBITDA, the black line plotted against cash flow. Over time, operating cash flow in red should approximate EBITDA, there can be timing impacts from year to year. The chart shows relatively low operating cash in 2023, despite higher earnings. This is mostly a function of the unwind of June 2022, high pool and commodity prices mentioned just now. The prior year's results also benefited from high futures exchange collateral inflows, shown here in yellow, which also unwound in 2023.
In blue is the AUD 65 per certificate shortfall charges we've, we've paid for under delivery of LGCs. The shortfall payment made in 2023 is likely to be the last. We now expect refunds in the coming years. Just to be clear about that, we're expecting gross, non-tax assessable refunds of around AUD 600 million, at the same time, we'll pay the cost of the forward certificate purchases of around AUD 180 million. So we're expecting a net inflow of AUD 420 million across financial years, 2024-2026. We expect improved cash conversion in 2024, assuming the current, more stable price environment. The slide 19 shows how distributions from APLNG have grown over recent years and also the form of these distributions.
In 2023, we received record distributions of AUD 1.78 billion, despite this being the first full year of the reduced 27.5% equity participation. 2023 was also the first year all distributions were in the form of unfranked dividends. This has resulted in increased reported tax expense in Origin's results for the year. We expect APLNG carried forward losses to be fully utilized in financial year 2024, and for them to commence paying tax and franking dividends in the following year. The cash generation performance of APLNG was once again outstanding. On a 100% basis, AUD 8.2 billion of cash was generated after paying Queensland royalties of AUD 930 million. Investment spend was only AUD 400 million, and debt servicing just over AUD 1.2 billion, allowing total distributions of a very impressive AUD 6.5 billion.
On slide 20, the board has determined a fully frank final dividend of AUD 0.20 per share, taking full-year dividends to AUD 0.365 per share. The full-year dividend represents an Adjusted Free Cash Flow payout ratio of 66% above our policy range of 30%-50%. The higher dividend payout this year reflects the strength of the recovery and financial performance and the board's confidence in the future. In support of this point, our balance sheet leverage is currently well below our target range at 1.2x debt to EBITDA. Turning now to Energy Markets earnings on slide 21. Energy Markets' EBITDA was AUD 637 million higher, driven almost equally by electricity gross profit, up AUD 366 million, and gas gross profit, up AUD 379 million.
Slightly offsetting this, cost to serve were up AUD 89 million, largely due to higher bad and doubtful debt expense, with higher bill sizes and rising customer cost of living pressures. The increased electricity gross profit arises from higher wholesale prices, mostly incurred in prior periods, being flowed into both business and mass market regulated tariffs. The benefit of higher tariffs was partially offset by higher fuel costs in the current year, primarily coal and higher net pool costs. Gas customer tariffs also repriced, reflecting higher current and prior year purchase costs. Energy Markets' exposure to JKM index prices were largely hedged, but at prices higher than the prior year. On slide 22, we've reported Octopus Energy as a separate segment for the first time. We will do this going forward, given its increasing materiality.
Origin share of Octopus EBITDA was AUD 240 million, up from a loss of AUD 36 million in the prior year, and an AUD 83 million loss in the first half. There are two main drivers of this improved performance. Firstly, losses from the prior year and first half resulted from sharply higher costs of energy that were unable to be passed through to customers due to the lag in the regulated tariff reset. The change to quarterly tariff resets during 2023 allowed high costs incurred in half one to be recouped in half two. Secondly, the increase in customer accounts with a six-month contribution from the 2.5 million additional customers via the Bulb Energy acquisition, and also continuing organic growth. Kraken licensing revenue was slightly lower as the prior year included higher one-off milestone and performance payments.
Recurring revenue will increase as customer accounts go live on the Kraken platform, typically only when the full migration of projects is complete. Turning lastly to integrated gas earnings on slide 23. Excluding the impact of the equity sell-down, our share of APLNG earnings were up AUD 355 million, with continuing strong global oil and gas prices, the major driver. APLNG continues to benefit from good field performance, enabling the deferral of development activity. However, the cumulative impact of three years of La Niña-related wet weather negatively impacted production and sales volume and operating costs in 2023. LNG volumes were lower, impacting spot sales, with seven spot export cargoes delivered in the year, compared to 15 in the prior year. The domestic gas market was prioritized in the year, given this lower production.
Operating costs were AUD 176 million higher, with higher royalties associated with higher prices, the commencement of a multi-year cyclical maintenance program, and the impacts of wet weather, including higher gas purchases and increased workover activity. Our LNG trading activities generated a gain of AUD 58 million, compared to a loss of AUD 23 million in the prior year. This was largely a result of locking in favorable hedging during the period of disruption in global gas prices. Substantial gains from LNG trading are also forecast over the coming three years, again, as a result of this timely hedging activity. With that, I'll hand you back to Frank for our operational performance update.
Okay, thanks very much, Lawrie. Now turning to the operational review, and starting with energy markets. You'll see on slide 26, really a timeline of events over the two halves of the financial year we've just been in, and just how much has changed between those two halves, and then also how that flows through to the outlook for the 24 financial year. I think the key points to note, really coming through the second half and into the outlook was, for the second half, really, we've seen lower electricity and gas spot prices. It was a milder summer, and then in addition to that, the coal price cap was introduced in December 2022, which did moderate fuel costs. There's no change to mass market tariffs that occur in the half.
They all occur really around one July or one August, so there's no impact for that in the second half. As you look forward to FY 2024, and these will sit as key drivers, I think, for the, for the growth in our earnings, you have got the, the tariffs increasing that are recovering the higher costs we did incur through 2023. The coal price cap continues to 30 June 2024, and then from 2025, we'll be purchasing coal at market prices. On the basis of where we see the forward price curve today, recognizing there's a lot more to happen in relation to that, to set prices, we're seeing a moderation in tariffs expected in 2025. The next slide really does highlight, I think, that analytically, so that you can see it in terms of prices and contribution.
You can see, therefore, the forward curves in New South Wales on the left-hand side, highlighting what happened over the various years and how that's forming into the tariffs. You can also see up through the yellow there, just where we see FY 2025 at this point. Our coal price has moderated. They did moderate in market, you can see the introduction of the cap and its impact there. Also, when you then see the Eraring contribution , it just shows the margins that have, therefore, really disappeared, in fact, to be loss-making in the first half of 2023, and therefore, the recovery of that into the second half. Turning to gas margin, there is a higher gas gross profit unit margins.
There was the combination here of two things, really, the repricing of tariffs, as we recover those wholesale costs. There were trading gains in FY 2023 that we don't expect to fully repeat in 2024. Those trading gains are really around the timing of hedge execution associated with JKM. We now are sitting in a position where the majority of our JKM exposure is set for FY 2024, and therefore, we'd expect unit margins, as you can see on that left-hand chart in the red there, to come back to the long-term trend of closer to AUD 3 a gigajoule. The gas supply continues to be a source of strength in that we have a balanced supply and demand.
It's really underpinned by fixed price, I should say, with CPI indexation on those contracts and transport flexibility. Clearly, the key event for gas pricing this year is the Beach price review, which is ongoing. It is effective from 1 July, but has not been concluded. Turning to retail competition on slide 29, you can see just how much it was muted in the during FY 2023, and that it's actually returned with stronger headline discounts as we approached the last quarter of the financial year, 2023, 2023 quarter four financial year. Also, as we've come into the first month, Origin's churn continues to be below market. Overall market churn is definitely lower over the course of the year than FY 2022.
You can recall that it's not that long ago that we saw those events that led to 10 Retailer of Last Resort failures that really occurred over this financial year. We continue to grow our customer base. We continue to adopt a value-based approach with products, pricing, channels, and renewals. We're rated 4.6 stars on Trustpilot, and we utilize the Customer Happiness Index now that we'll continue to measure going forward. And you'll see that that's sitting at 65%. System migration to Kraken or customer migration to Kraken on slide 30. They're big projects. Very pleased to say that we have all of our customers migrated, and we're in that period of stabilization. We're very confident in the Kraken platform, and the unique operating model that delivers both customer experience and lower cost.
We're in the midst of actually, operationally, bedding that down. We continue to support our customers through cost of living pressures, I mentioned earlier, through the support to vulnerable customers of AUD 30 million in the last financial year. You will see our bad and doubtful debts that have risen by AUD 74 million, and that's on the back of cost of living. It's also on the back of larger bills coming through. We remain very focused on our targeted cost savings of AUD 200 million-AUD 250 million, but what you will note here is we've moved the achievement of that from 2024 to 2025. It is really all driven by just the time it'll take us to stabilize and the run rate of those savings, but the destination and the target remain the same.
If you were looking on a bad and doubtful-- if you excluded the rising bad and doubtful debts, just to give a context to that, we're at AUD 150 million on the way through to that AUD 200-AUD 250. We've set up growth opportunities on slide 31. You can see our Community Energy Services business, the contribution that's come in a full year from Wind Connect now means we have services there for, provide up to 442,000 customer accounts. A good CRO growth profile there. It's a very good business, and the team are doing a good job of continuing to deliver. Broadband, where now I think it's since the results of, we've ticked over 100,000 customers, are continuing to get good customer service rating.
Very important for the brand, for us, that we grow that, we grow a good customer experience along the way, remain very focused on how we can continue to accelerate that growth. You can see on the right-hand side, what I touched on earlier, in relation to the growth for the virtual power plant. Origin Zero was established, I think, somewhat about 18 months ago, probably less than 18 months ago, which really is serving our business customers, not only for their core commodity product, but actually taking them on the decarbonization journey to net zero. We are gaining momentum in new products and services, you can see the percent increase of customers that are now getting services broader than the core commodity. We've launched several new products, we're getting good, strong, early demand.
One of those is through EV subscription, solar PPA, and we've also enhanced the digital tools for customers to be able to engage with us, including the upgrade to our My Business Account. In terms of the core commodity market, it certainly was a challenging time with commodity prices moving around. We were able to keep our electricity volumes stable. We grew our gas volumes by 6.5 petajoules, and through that period, pleased to see the progress we're making on customer experience as measured by customer satisfaction and strategic NPS. We all know we've got a way to go there, but it's been great progress to see the team make that over the last 12 months. Turning to Octopus Energy. We've dedicated more material this year.
Firstly, just turning to what played out in terms of the U.K. market. On the left-hand side of the chart shows you what forward prices did since July 2021 through to just to now, and also how that's actually played out through to the tariffs observed. The one thing to note in the U.K. is they have moved to a quarterly tariff reset through the 2023 financial year, and that's actually enabled them, particularly from a half one to half two, to recover those higher wholesale costs that Lawrie mentioned earlier in the first half, have been able to be recovered. What you've seen in that market was a significant market consolidation as a result of the volatility in the underlying commodity prices.
As you'll all be aware, Europe experienced very significant gas shortages and energy price shocks towards the end of last calendar year. Octopus has navigated that condition very well, those conditions well. Good risk management on the way through. They've actually grown their customer base through that time by 150% to the 9.7 million accounts. That included two acquisitions, Avro Energy and Bulb Energy. Bulb took place in December 2022. The one thing that has happened in that market is that you'll, for people not familiar, is they did set a fixed limit on prices towards the back end of the year when they saw escalation. It meant most customers are on now a variable tariff with a quarterly reset.
What Octopus does is they price those as a discount to the regulator, called Ofgem's price cap. That was following a decision made to protect customers from those rising prices. I'll talk a little further about the brand positioning going forward. Through this time, they've also maintained that cost-to-serve advantage. Turning to the next side, slide 35. The left-hand side really repeats that customer account growth earlier, but you can see the revenue. I think the next two charts, though, on slide 35, highlight just how unique and how strong the brand and customer focus of this business is. When you really focus on the middle chart, what their NPS differential is to all of their competitors in the U.K. energy market, it is significant, and being 39 points higher than the industry average.
On the right-hand side, you'll see through the YouGov site there, just how they are seen as a trusted brand relative to the rest of the market. You see this as a business that not only has scale technology, but I think you should also think about the operating model, and not only that, the brand and the strength of the brand in the market. In relation to Kraken, I'm just highlighting once again, those, the licensing. It highlights the countries in the middle chart. It recently signed contracts with Plenitude. Plenitude is the international arm of Eni, or Eni, as you may know them, the Italian energy business. They now are, are running retail operating systems.
Kraken is for 50% of the U.K. market. With our migration, now 30% of the Australian market by customer accounts. They have built a VPP, which they know as KrakenFlex, on the right-hand side. They've contracted to third parties over 5 GW of dispatchable power. In relation to their own business, they've now got 380 MW of flexible EVs, recognizing that EVs have a high penetration in the U.K, but they're now managing 380 MW of those batteries. It is one of Europe's largest virtual power plants that they're building at the same time. Turning to integrated gas, the resource base continues to be strong.
We continue to have confidence in it, and there have been net positive reserves revision before reduction again, and you'll see that's happened in the non-operated area, reflecting better-than-expected performance from those operators that we're flowing through to ours. Clearly, with 1P remaining at 60% of 3P, we are significantly de-risking that reserve base. It's worth noting, there is, continues to be a large contingent resource base, and it is near infrastructure that exists, and it does provide an opportunity for us to tie in, at a low cost, new wells. The plays that are being targeted are close to Condabri, Peat and the Spring Gully fields. A very good resource base that continues to give us great confidence. The production on the next slide, clearly down by 3%.
It's not where we would have liked to start the year. We wouldn't normally start with any explanation with weather, the significance of La Niña, I couldn't understate, given the flooding that did occur in Queensland over months that really had an issue on access. This is not just rain, this is just accessing wells. What I am pleased to see is that we've been able to rebound on the right-hand side to get back once we had that drier weather. It has increased activity, the team have really responded. We are now very much focused on optimization activities that allow it, driving those lower well pressures and higher gas flow rates.
We have ramped full capacity for some of the infrastructure, some of the pipelines, the Talinga-Condabri, and we've also started up the Orana South Loop line. That's just enabled us to sort of increase greater operational flexibility of moving gas to where it's needed in terms of capacity available. I talked earlier, highlight, record revenue. Clearly, oil price has driven that. You can see on the left-hand side, the profile of those commodity prices were largely. A large portion of our revenue is driven by long-term LNG export contracts that are linked to the oil price, and you can see that realized oil price this year was AUD 103 a barrel, compared to AUD 74 in the previous financial year. Our spot cargoes were down this year, not only due to production, but also a prioritization of domestic market sales.
You continue to see the average realized domestic sale price is, is well below international Netback Price. What we'll do is, on the next slide, just highlight those domestic sales, 'cause you can see a number of those are legacy domestic contracts, but you can also see the short-term domestic contracts highlighted in yellow. I'm now on slide 41. As a % of total sales, we've kept that constant. What you can see is really we've continued to sell in excess of 150 petajoules of gas each year for the last three years to the domestic market, and the slightly lower amount this year is really a reflection of that lower production. Costs are up this year, due to a number of things. We certainly have seen increased workover activity, and we've been reducing an inventory backlog.
The final year of that elevated workover program will be the financial year we're going into now. We're in the middle of a multi-year upstream gas processing maintenance program that will continue and be completed in the financial year 25. We have increased operated and non-operated well development activity, and there have been some impacts of costs from that, as well as inflation impacting operating costs. We do focus, and it will expand on this in the next slide, prioritizing low cost of supply. You'll see the way we think about the hierarchy of that, and it's supported by a cultural evolution in our business that the team are making progress on. Just touching on that, on slide 43, you can see the way we think about this.
The strategy starts with the lowest cost, short cycle opportunities to deliver low-cost supply. Then as you go down, those levers to production become higher cost and longer cycle. Firstly, we focus on optimizing existing wells, and that's all about optimal pressures, downhole pressure, and improving flow rates. There's a continual improvement that's going on. Certainly in the second half of the year, we've seen good progress. That higher workover activity has increased wells online by 5%. We've got more of that to come. Clearly, getting more wells online through that workover activity and reducing the workover unit cost is a key driver. Also installing optimal pumps that for each of the well types, that increases well availability. We continue to learn in that respect.
Talked about the infrastructure bottlenecking being those two pipelines that have been brought online, and there will be a suite of additional debottlenecking projects and infrastructure development that enables capacity to be utilized higher. Then, what you then come to of the highest cost, longer cycle, is really the drilling of wells. The strong field performance and all of the optimization I've just talked about above, has enabled the deferral of future operating drilling program ramping up. We have seen, at the same time, non-operated development deliver 104 wells, so they've been ramping up some of that activity, but we've been able to defer that, and that's what we're really focused on.
Bottom of the slide really just talks about the next evolution in the culture, operating model, and performance that we're driving through, through our organization, and I'd have you focus really just on frontline ownership and an asset-led model that become the key focus of those points. Okay, now turning to outlook. I'm now on slide 45, starting with Energy Markets and Octopus. Energy Markets, we give guidance, and I should say, for all of our, based on, or for all, but for all of the businesses, based on the fact that market conditions and the regulatory environment do not materially change. For FY 2024 Energy Markets, EBITDA is expected to be between AUD 1.3 billion and AUD 1.7 billion. That does exclude Octopus Energy. You'll see that, that earnings guidance on the right-hand side returns us to recovering towards our cost of capital.
It will be through a growth in electricity gross profit as those tariffs reprice to reflect those costs, and as capacity prices have increased, and also the continuation of purchasing coal at the prices within the arrangements that have been set up by the government in New South Wales. The gas profit, I talked about earlier, will moderate based on not repeating the trading gains this year and as our procurement costs increase with the supply contracts repricing. In relation to Octopus Energy, it's a business that continues to rapidly grow and continues to invest in its growth, both internationally, the technology platform, and its energy services business.
We expect that the share of Origin's share of Octopus Energy's EBITDA will be lower in FY 2024, but it is in a wide range of possible outcomes and does reflect the competition, particularly in the U.K. retail market, that's a key driver of those range of outcomes. It will be that this year, though, is going to have a full year contribution from Bulb as part of that as well. In FY 2025, I mentioned at the outset, when we were looking at that original one of the slide nine, that we expected a reduction in electricity growth profit in FY 2025 compared to 2024, and it really is just assuming the current forward energy prices are maintained and priced into the tariffs.
We will get the additional benefit from our cost reduction in FY 2025, associated with, the implementation of our platform. Turning to the guidance for integrated gas, and you can see there, the production guidance is between 680 and 710 petajoules. It reflects a return to the stable operations that I think I've highlighted, that have been, building momentum over the last six months. Unit CapEx and OpEx will be between, AUD 3.90 and AUD 4.40 a gigajoule in 2024. That is higher. It reflects higher power costs. It reflects the continued workover program to reduce the inventory backlog, and there is higher non-operated development. We will have a lower cyclical maintenance cost, and then we will continue to deliver benefits through the base production optimization programs.
To put that into context, what we've done is, given you a unit CapEx and OpEx guidance for 25, 26, which are expected to be lower in the range of AUD 3.60-AUD 4.10, and that will be delivering those initiatives we've talked about on the earlier slides, the production optimization, the cost of supply initiatives, and also completing that cyclical maintenance program, and also lower power costs as we see the forward curves. Now, before any hedging, and the hedging is included on slide 55, we have approximately 41% of our 17 million bbl share of APLNG's oil production exposure already set, and we have 23% of the JKM price exposure priced in.
They're at, respectively, $84 a barrel and $11 at MMBtu, respectively. Then you would have to look at slide 55 to understand then hedging is in addition to that. Then in relation to our LNG trading business, we've given guidance that we expect that to deliver earnings of $40 million-$60 million in FY 2024, and over the two years of 2025 and 2026, so the combined two years, a guidance of $450 million-$650 million earnings as well there. I'm sure you've absorbed a lot of information. We will now turn to questions. Thank you for your attention as we've gone through those slides.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Tom Allen from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, Frank, Lawrie, and the broader team. Congratulations on a strong full year result. First question is just on the outlook for the Eraring Power Station. You have the option to take the entire plant down from August 25. You commented, Frank, that you've been busy developing support plans for the large workforce that are employed at the plant. Are there any preparations underway to keep all or some of the plant capacity going beyond August 25, and when does that decision need to be made?
Thanks, Tom. There no change to our plans to exit Eraring as early as 2025 August. That's our base plan. We don't have any different plan to that. Clearly, we've said, and continue to say, that we would assess the market over time. We're doing that. We also clearly said that we would need to think in advance of closure, the preparations associated with people and a number and local community and a number of other things. But, that's our plans at the moment, Tom. There's no real change to what we've previously said.
Okay. Thanks, Frank. With your coal price caps concluding at the end of FY 2024, how should we interpret your coal supply arrangements in terms of your current stockpile? What volume of the, the higher priced coal will you need to procure to see you through to the planned closure date?
Okay. Firstly, the coal price cap goes through to 30 June 2024. We don't have an expectation it continues beyond that date. The arrangements of purchasing that are well set out in terms of procurement arrangements between those suppliers and with the New South Wales government guidance. We're, we're doing that, and effectively, we secure that essentially on a sort of quarterly cycle is the way that works. Think about that between now and 30 June 2024. We therefore will be buying coal in market from 1 July 2024, and the team are in market and will be layering that in, recognizing that we purchased that coal and really need to manage that against how tariffs will be set in that financial year. They'll be laying that in.
Therefore, there will be discussions going on with suppliers at the moment. Therefore, when you think about FY 2025, we will be buying that market We'll be buying coal on market from now to set that supply up for that financial year, and that would be reaching close to the closure date, would be a month or two short of the closure date.
The current stockpile, Frank?
Greg, I'll let Greg talk coal stockpiles.
Tom, yeah. Currently we have a 750,000 ton stockpile, so quite healthy. The arrangements with the New South Wales government are working well. I think probably the only addition to add here is that logistics, we've you know, we've really made some headway here, so most of our coal now comes from the Hunter Valley, so we are training in most of our coal, and we are not just reliant on the local coal mines via conveyor belt. We really have, sort of, spread our coal sources now, which is very pleasing.
Thanks, Greg. Thanks, Frank. If I can sneak another one over in APLNG, keen to just understand, you spoke to the drivers of higher year-on-year production, but what proportion of that uplift is sort of weather-related compared to the optimization activities and the stronger flow rates? The second part to that question is: given the policy pressure in Australia to put more gas into the domestic market, how should we expect the uplift in production to be directed between spot LNG and East Coast domestic gas sales? Recognizing that those sales are likely to be capped to the $12 gigajoule cap price.
Okay, thanks, Tom. Just on the first question, just so I'm clear, I assume the question was in relation to the fact that we're guiding the production in 2024 to be above what we delivered in 2023. Is that the, the difference you're focusing on? Just so I'm clear.
Correct.
Yeah.
Correct.
Okay. How much of that is driven? If you looked at the second half run rate, and I'll get Andrew to add some comments. If you looked at that second half run rate, we would be certainly moving towards the middle of that range, just based on the fact that we've been able to get back to daily production. I think that's a bigger drive, and I'll get Andrew just to add some layers to that, and then he'll take you through how the marketing of gas works for APLNG under the various mechanisms, so you can put that into context.
Yeah. Hi, Tom. Just dealing with that first question to start with. Yeah, as Frank said, we're already at a run rate. We've been producing at a run rate in the second half of 2023 that allows us to continue that into 2024. There's no required uplift on a run rate basis to hit the 2024 numbers. What we will continue to do in 2024, though, is there's still, and this is reflected in the cost, there's still an inventory of or a backlog of inventory of work over wells that are required to be brought online. We'll do that. That'll help support production. Beyond that, what we'll do is continue to optimize the wells that are online through the way that we normally do through optimizing pressures, et cetera.
Just the one thing, though, probably to if you're trying to draw the record production run rate into 2024, just note that some of the at the time, we were doing the record production in 2023, that's, there's obviously no planned maintenance or unplanned maintenance. The thing to remember into 2024 is we do have still some major turnarounds of our GPFs that have to be factored into that.
On the second?
Yeah.
Yeah.
On, on the way we'll market gas, we are operating and in, in compliance with the heads of agreement that exists today. What that means is we offer all of our uncontracted volume into the domestic market first. That's, that's what we have been doing, that's what we'll continue to do, and really, domestic demand will determine how, how much of that volume goes in the domestic market versus accessing spot cargoes.
That's it.
Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Frank. That's clear.
Okay. Thanks, Tom.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Dale Koenders from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. I was wondering if you could provide any color on expectations for the independent expert report timeframe?
Did you say independent expert report?
Yeah, correct.
Yeah.
Independent-
Yeah. Look, the independent expert process is underway. The finalization of that independent expert report will need to be very close to the time when you are sending out scheme booklets for purpose of vote. I can't give you certainty on time because we're in the midst of ACCC and FIRB approvals, and that, therefore, that timetable will drive, I think, overall transaction timetable, and therefore, the independent expert's timing will need to fit in with that. Hopefully that makes sense. That's the reason why we can't give you a definitive date, 'cause it'll all have to match up on transaction timetable.
Is there anything you can say about ACCC or FIRB that's, it's going according to plan or any concerns or any watch points?
Well, it's really a matter for the consortium, and they're the ones that are engaging with ACCC. I can't really add more to that. It's actually their application. You know, I get the information that you get in terms of the letters that are, that are issued and the progress. They've requested a 30-day extension, the ACCC, and the consortium's engaging with them. I really can't add more than that. It really is a matter for the consortium, though.
Okay, then maybe just secondly, on Octopus, incredible result. I think you made the comment your interest would be lower going forward. Is that a signal that they're likely to raise equity and you might not participate?
No.
Well, how are you thinking about that equity call from Octopus going forward?
No, sorry. Our interest is 20%, and if I've left an impression that I was talking our interest going forward be lower, it's actually the earnings contribution in 2024.
Okay.
If it was in the guidance section, I was saying our expectation at the moment, within a wide range of outcomes, I should say, because it's leveraged to the retail market based on competition, is that it would have a lower contribution to Origin. Nothing to do with our equity holding. Our equity holding, you should work on the basis it's always been 20% and would continue to be 20%. I, I apologize if I've, I've, I've not been clear to people when I raised that earlier.
Okay. How should we think about the value of that asset? You've done an amazing job. It's really shot the lights out. Profits are enormous. Do we put it on a utilities multiple to think about...?
Yeah
... the right value for that?
Well, I'll, I'll tell you the way we think about it, and then maybe that will be helpful. We haven't done an amazing job. I think the Octopus team have done an amazing job, but I'm sure there's people around the table who love to take credit for the amazing job we all do here. If anything, it's been a good relationship, and we have been supportive from early days, so I, I do feel that the relationship is strong. Firstly, it's a retailer. It's not a vertically integrated retailer, Dale, so it purchases energy in the market. As you probably appreciate, the U.K. is a much deeper wholesale market, so you've got to think of them as a retailer that-...
does use good analytics to actually predict load and everything, but it is actually making the retail margin, and, and that's the way to think about it. At 9.7 million accounts, the dynamics in that market do go to the unit margins. They do have a cost to serve advantage relative to the regulated cap, and that's their key advantage. The brand is also meaning that they're acquiring customers at a low cost relative to what you would see in a normal dynamic, and that's where the brand does play out. Think about a non-integrated, large-scale retailer, and, I think if you went and looked at the work that's been done by competitors and the Ofgem about margins, allowance, and competitive dynamics, you could come up with a range of views around that.
That's one of the reasons why there still can be a lot playing out in the market. It does look a bit more stabilized, that market today, but, you know, it goes through another winter and another summer, just like us. The second business is a platform that's Kraken, and the Kraken platform, they license. To be very clear, the 9.7 million accounts that are. They're also included in the 32. The energy business pays a licensing fee to them, and then there are a number of other customers globally, including us, that are paying a license fee. The license fee is, is, has been a little lumpy, because some of the early deals, like ours, weren't all on just a cost per customer account.
Some of them had milestone payments. That's why there's a little bit of lumpiness. There's also a lag from when you sign them on to when they get implemented on. They've got a number of implementations going on globally. I would think about a monolithic platform that has high gross margin that's being implemented. One of the advantages of now having it live on 10 countries is that they know they've got them now operational, including Australia. Because as you know, there's always localization of regulatory arrangements. So that's a think about a licensing business at per customer account at reasonably high or very high gross margins and with a CapEx profile. I think it's earlier days on the services businesses. I'll probably focus on the first two. The service business are growing.
We probably haven't given you enough information, and it's probably less mature, but they're the two ways I'd, I'd look at those businesses. They're increasingly, you know, serving much more than themselves. That's why you should think of them as two businesses today.
Okay, thanks, Frank. That's helpful.
Yep. Thanks, Dan.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Ian Myles, from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Just further on the Octopus side, are you actually paying an annual license fee to Octopus Energy for the use of your customers, or are you just, like E.ON, paid a one-off payment to get access to the platform?
I'll just I'll get Jon Briskin to describe our arrangement with you, with them, so that you, you have an understanding. Okay?
Yeah. Good day, Ian. All customers will pay an ongoing license fee. The one-off or the implementation fees are sort of different arrangements that were included, especially in the early ones, like us and E.ON. In terms of our own fees, we, we have just completed migration, so we're yet to, to actually pay those license fees, but we will start to pay them in due course.
It's a mixture of the two, Ian, with the second yet to commence. Because there'll be some milestone payments, you'd expect the commercial arrangement we have is therefore a lower ongoing rate on a per customer account basis. I think as time's.
Mm.
-gone on, they're into more per customer account basis, and you would probably appreciate the logic about that. When they were a small business, that was how they were managing cost implementation growth, and now they're getting into a much more recurring revenue model. Is that right, Jon?
Yeah, that's right. Maybe just picking up the point you made earlier in the presentation. They do have a lot of contracted customers. Now, they're going through, I think it's something like six or seven migrations right now. Those customers won't be paying license fees, but over time, that revenue licensing line that you see will continue to increase.
Yeah.
Okay, then in terms of the profitability, in the U.K., I went and quickly looked at Ofgem, and you're not actually offering any discount relative to the market. How much of the EBITDA improvement is actually the volume element of the business being surprisingly favorable to you, as opposed to just making that spread by providing the services? It was a warmer winter in the U.K. Did that have a positive impact on the results?
No, that. The, the result was really, is driven by that sort of spread between EBIT and headroom you'll see in the Ofgem tariff, plus their cost to serve advantage. Their existing customer base has, are on a, a slight discount to that price cap. Right now, acquiring new customers is, it's the dynamic of the market in the U.K. right now, where they are being acquired at the price cap. Yeah, so it wasn't, wasn't, a huge factor, the, both the volume and the lower wholesale costs, over that summer period.
volume, as it relates to I wasn't sure if you were referring to volumes consumed, but volume customer account numbers has been-
Customer account numbers.
has been a big driver.
Customer account numbers have definitely been a big driver. Big driver, yeah.
From a funding point of view, does Octopus, like, Your accounts don't provide a lot of detail, but does Octopus have a large cash balance still on its books that it can actually go and fund all these other programs it's trying to do at the moment, so it's actually an internally funded business now?
... so it does have, you know, a, a strong positive cash balance, and it is self-funding its growth, at the moment. Clearly, it's been on a, a trajectory of rapid growth, and, and so the options available to, you know, we'll continue to discuss across the board there and, and make decisions as we go forward. You should take that, you know, right now, it's, it is a self-funding business.
Yeah. The other thing-
Okay.
to note about the U.K., Ian, is that the bills are the same throughout the year, but the consumption profile is different, so the working capital draw on the U.K. businesses is high through the winter period. Therefore, you're, you need to have the strength of balance sheet. In fact, that was one of the key features always about it growing, was that it kept downside scenario capital, you know, call it, available to make sure that if there were any downside scenarios in a winter, so that they could, they could withstand. They are sitting with a strong balance sheet today.
Okay. Look, on the energy markets business, you talk about electricity sort of reaching maybe a peak earnings. Is the gas side of the business likely to suffer the same situation, or you are comfortable that you can maintain that sort of AUD 3 spread over time?
Yeah. Greg-
Do you want to...?
Yeah, sure. Yes, look, well, look, we, we had a very good year this year, but we, you know, I, you know, margins will probably come down to that range of AUD 3-AUD 4, so that's, that's what we expect. We did place in some very cheap hedging some years ago, and that's why this year was, you know, the margin was higher. We, you know, do expect to go back to trend of that AUD 3-AUD 4 GJ range.
The, the combination of that, Ian, is really that we've obviously had legacy long-term purchase contracts that contribute some of that.
Mm-hmm.
Then the balance is really contributed through the portfolio that Greg's described, of both supply contracts that have been entered into some time ago, combined with transportation, and it's the mix of those as well as the ability to, as you know, have both customer, power station, transport, enabling us to actually manage very dynamically the supply-demand balance throughout year, and year-on-year, that enables us to capture the balance, that margin. That does come with some. As you know, that comes with us having to also manage quite a bit of risk in that gas market, but we do believe we can sustain the unit margins that we're sort of guiding to in FY 2024.
Okay. Finally, I just on Eraring again, I'm sorry to labor the point. Can you maybe give us some color on how far through you are to try and hedge You're going effectively from being very long in New South Wales to quite short, that you've got cover in that base load?
Mm-hmm.
It's not like we've got huge amounts of additional volume coming in. Everything seems to be getting delayed. How do you actually hedge that without shedding large amounts of volume?
I'm not prepared to share more of that on the call today, Ian.
Okay.
I understand the question, but it's also a, as you know, it's a market that's pretty dynamic, and we're a key player in that market.
Sure.
I'm sorry, but that's, it's, it's.
No, that's okay. That's okay.
it's sensitive. Yeah, so sorry about that. Yep.
Thanks very much, Ian.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Rob Koh, from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Oh, good morning. Congratulations on the result. May I ask a question about, the, the Octopus? I guess you've given, you've clarified there the, the earnings steer for, for this financial year. Is it fair to, to say that there's, the, the FY 2023 result included recoveries of, of the extraordinary period, so that the, the number that we'll see in FY 2024 is a little bit more like the, the starting point from a underlying position from growth?
I think you're right. The markets will always be dynamic, Rob, but you, you saw they were quite extraordinary, and there was an element, because it moved from 2022-2023 , there was even a catch up in 2023. There was the events of 2023 in the first half that masked that. There was the move to a quarterly tariff. There's an element of all of that in those numbers as well. You're right, if you went to where markets are today, and therefore where bills are, and wholesale costs are, and everything like that, that's a reasonable, that's a reasonable statement to make. The one thing that we can never perfectly predict, Rob, is the retail dynamic that Jon talked about earlier, because you've gone through a time where markets have, where the price has been capped.
Everyone's had to operate within that. There's been some regulatory shift there, and that's the only thing that I could never perfectly predict, and that's why we do say there are a wide range of outcomes. Now, with such a large customer account basis, there's just more leverage to that, and so that's-- I think your opening statement is a fair one.
Great, thank you. Then maybe just to clarify, thank you for the, the, partial financial statements for the Octopus. That also is very helpful. Just, can I confirm, how is the company accounting for cost to acquire? Do they just OpEx that, or is there an element of capitalization?
Rob, it's Jon here. They do account for that under capital. There is a capital.
Okay.
allocation there, yeah.
Okay. All right, thank you, Mr. Briskin. May I ask a question to, I guess, Mr. Tremaine? 'Cause I'm sure you'd be on top of this, but I've having a look at the annual report and the cash from operations for energy markets, had the very big swings in working capital there. That's gotta be something that you're, you're right on top of. Can I, can I just maybe get your perspective on how you'd expect that cash conversion to play out over the next little while?
Yeah, thanks, Rob. That, I did cover it in one of my slides. Essentially, very, very high pool prices and commodity prices, particularly in June 2022. Meant that 2022 cash conversion was very, very high, that unwound in 2023. Like, that's the, that's pretty much the whole story. What you get in 2024 is more like what you would normally expect. Again, when you make a forward-looking statement, there's always a whole bunch of assumptions around that, clearly the assumption is, you know, a more stable price environment. The biggest, for just a little more granular detail, the biggest impact is actually because of our short to the pool position.
You end up with a, you know, in a period of high pool prices, you end up with a very high AEMO payable balance. That's what happened at the end of 2022. Of course, in 2023, you've got to pay the bill. That's why you get that, that outflow in 2023. Of course, then pool prices moved lower through the year, and so that all righted itself by the end of 2023.
Okay, thank you. That's, that's, super helpful. Just a, just a final, question here. There's, there's a lot of commentary on your, developments in renewables and, Origin Loop, the VPP, which all looks exciting. Can you comment, is there any opportunity to collaborate with TNSPs on these things?
I'll get Tony to talk a... Yes, there is. I'll get Tony to give a little bit of color to that.
Hi, Rob. Tony here. Yeah, obviously, with the VPP, we're putting assets into distribution networks. From their perspective, it's quite important that they understand the implications of that. We work with all of the distribution networks in terms of getting what we'd call an operating envelope of how those assets can operate, and we incorporate that into the algorithm within the virtual power plant.
The, the, the second probably area of collaboration has really been around community batteries, where we're, we're actually dealing directly with some of those distribution networks to install batteries in, in their, I, I guess, their, substations and, and pole mount, where we can then provide a, a service to, to customers, and also capture value from, from lowering their cost of energy and sharing that with those customers as well.
Okay, cool. It might have come across a little funny. I actually said TNSP, Transmission Network Service Providers, but thanks, Tony Lucas, for the DNSP part. That's helpful, too.
That's what I thought you said, Rob.
Is there any-
Well, that'll do me.
Anything on that? Yeah. Yeah, that's probably the key opportunity with the VPP, is with the distribution companies right now.
Okay, many thanks.
Thanks, Rob.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Gordon Ramsay, from RBC. Please go ahead.
Oh, thank you. Just interested in the outlook for the cost to serve. You're still targeting AUD 200 million-AUD 250 million. You've moved it out to FY 2025. You are not netting that in-debt, debt expense out of that guidance, is that right?
It's our intent to deliver those cost savings, which would be inclusive of our bad and doubtful debt expense. Clearly, we've got a period with, you know, higher energy bills that have, in part, caused us to have a higher provision, but there's also both cost of living challenges. We have got a large focus on improvement across our collection processes. We've got a lot of sophistication in functionality built into our systems, and we're working through policies and procedures to get that back in line. Recognizing, again, 2024 is gonna have higher bills again. More broadly, though, we are targeting labor costs, we're targeting call deflection, automation.
We've got efficiency across our processes, and the operating model that we work under, with Kraken certainly allows better first call resolution and resolution of, of customer inquiries, quicker as well.
Okay, just to confirm, that excludes bad and doubtful debt, that guidance?
Is the AUD 200-AUD 250 going to include bad doubtful debts, or will you normalize-
No, we're targeting it to include-
To include.
To include is our target.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. This one's for you, Frank. The Lattice contract negotiations, the last time, I think, extended out to something like 11 months. Where is that sitting at the moment?
Really, well, those discussions are commercial in confidence under the nature of the contract, but they are ongoing. It's probably not appropriate for me to say more than that based on our obligations under those contracts. If it was to go to full arbitration, though, you could be many months away without a result. The discussions are ongoing, Gordon, and that's probably the best guide I can give you right now. Yeah.
Again, just to clarify, it's not in full arbitration right now, is it? In some form of arbitration, or is it just company to company discussion?
It, it's, it's in arbitration at the moment. In that arbitration process, there is periods where you, you negotiate, and those negotiations are going, you know, strong. I mean, it, it, it's cordial, is what I would say.
There's a timetable process to get triggered, but there are negotiations even within that timetable process.
Yeah.
They're ongoing. They're constructive, but not finalized. So that's the way... So it's a bit more nuanced than saying you're just in arbitration, because I think there's a fair bit of discussion between the organizations as well.
Got it. Last one from me. Just on the timing of the takeover proposal. You previously said it would settle in early 2024. There's been a one-month extension for the ACCC. There's no change to that timeframe?
Still focusing on that timeframe, Gordon.
Okay, thank you.
Yeah. Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Max Vickerson from Morgans. Please go ahead.
Good morning, team. Can I just follow on maybe from Gordon's question on the lattice contract? Obviously, we've noticed that the nominations are significantly down at the plant. You can see that in futures outlook and in the AEMO data. Can I just ask, how are you covering that position in Victoria at the moment, if you're relying less on that contract? Is demand down? I know we've had a milder winter, but is it demand driven? Have you got adequate other backup arrangements in place, or are you spot market using the spot market to cover? Could you just give us a bit more color on that, if you can?
Yeah, yeah. Max, it's Greg here. Look, we have a number of contracts in place, but the first point is that gas demand has been, you know, a lot lower than certainly last winter. You know, that's predominantly driven by certainly weather, but actually more importantly, coal-fired fleet in the market has operated very, very well this winter, which has really taken off the demand for gas into generation, into gas generation. That's the first thing. Demand's well down. What we do in our portfolio is, you know, we have contractual obligations with all those contracts. We have flex on those contracts, then we just, you know, nominate accordingly. We are covering our whole position with all the contracts that we have in our portfolio.
Just the other point, too, is, you know, even gas storages are probably at the highest levels we've seen for many winters. Iona, which is in Victoria, is probably at the highest gas storage levels I've seen in this market for some time. That just tells you how much surplus gas there is available at this point in time.
Excellent. Thanks, Greg. This might be another question for you then. Just on Eraring and how that sits with the expectation of declining tariffs in FY 2025. As we get closer and it becomes more and more clear that, you know, the base, base case plan of closing in August 2025 is gonna be what happens in reality, do you expect that that position might change and that the futures market might react, or is that more an FY 2026 story?
Yeah, look, you know, the market is already looking at a number of factors in the market, quite frankly. It looks at, certainly, the prospects of Eraring coming out, but it also looks at all the other renewables and other gas-fired power stations coming in as well. It is being factored into the market, and I expect that will change over time as well.
The timing of the notice for Eraring is for August 2025, Max. It's in the FY 2026 financial year, but it is August 2025, just to have that focus.
Max, probably another point, there's not a lot of liquidity out there at this point in time either.
Yeah. Excellent. If I could just ask one more, just on the VPP. Look, that is some really impressive volume growth. Are you able to give us any indication of where your program sits relative to the other tier one retailers, either listed or unlisted?
Yeah, Tony here. We're concentrated quite a lot on both segments, so on residential and the Origin Zero segment. We probably have, you know, 200 MW in sort of the Origin Zero segment, and the balance coming from residential. I would say that that's probably a little bit stronger than others, perhaps in the residential space.
Excellent. Thanks very much.
Very understated.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Mark Busuttil from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Just a few things from me, if I could. Just in terms of the fiscal 2025 comments that you made, can you give us an indication of how much of your forward electricity you've already sold into fiscal 2025, if at all?
Greg?
Yeah, Mark, we haven't, CNI, you know, they're not... Typically, they don't trade or contract into that period at this point, so not a whole lot. It, it remains relatively open. Again, not much liquidity out there at this point in time, so from a CNI point of view. Yeah.
Did you want, James, did you want to add anything, anything more to the CNI market or?
The, the CNI portfolio that we have, you know, on average, you'd expect customers to be contracting between two and three years. It's slightly shorter now, you know, the next 12 months, you'd expect between a third and a half to renew. It kind of supports what Greg's saying there.
Okay, got it. Switching to Octopus, in terms of the guidance you provided in 2024. You did $240 million in EBITDA in 2023, and you're saying it's gonna be lower in 2024. My understanding was that business made nothing, if not negative, in the first half. All of that contribution came in the second half. For all of the factors you've talked about, are you saying it's gonna be more than a 50% drop on a half-on-half basis into 2024?
Yeah, I'm happy. Jon?
Yeah. Mark, no, we really, I think you need to think about FY 2023 as a full year contribution. There was a catch up, of course, you saw the high wholesale prices that we talked about. When you think about FY 2024, we have guided that there is a wide range of outcomes possible. Really, the biggest factor here is the return of a more competitive market in the U.K. I think you can sort of look at the Ofgem price cap, and you'll see the sort of headroom allowance and the EBIT allowance, and there is a cost to serve advantage, but that's assume, you know, that, that, that would assume all customers sit at that rate. In a competitive market, that is, that is going to change and more customers will move to discounts.
Really, your call is, how competitive is that market gonna be?
Okay. While I have you, John, just one last thing. In terms of the broadband accounts that you've managed to achieve so far, 96,000 is pretty good growth from the prior year, but still well short of your 600,000. Was that in line with expectations, or do you think there's some downside risk to that 600,000 you've, you've put out there?
Yeah, I mean, we're certainly, we're happy with a few things. We're, we're happy with the service that we're providing to customers, and we won some awards around that. We're really happy that we've started getting our external, sort of, third-party channels humming. We've also gone through this period of migration, where our focus has been making sure our customer service reps or energy specialists, that we call them, are very focused on learning the new system and supporting customers through that. We haven't really pressed all of our channels the way which we think we can. We certainly sort of see over the next couple of years that, that much larger ramp up.
You know, looking today, I think we're just over 100,000 today, and I've got 600,000 target there, so it is ambitious, no doubt, but we are, you know, very, very focused to achieve that.
Excellent. Thank you. That's all I've got.
Thanks, Mark.
Thank you. We have a follow-up question from Rob Koh from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I was just wondering, I, I probably should know this from reading the Scheme Implementation Deed, but, you are allowed to make some asset divestments, and I'm just wondering if, if it is, theoretically possible to, to, monetize the Origin investment, sorry, the Octopus investment and, you know, in some way, you know, maybe realize, some, some profit there?
Look, you're right. The scheme does have, it enables us to invest. I think any large scale divestment of that, and I'd have to go back and check this one particularly, but if you were doing something of a scale of that size, I'm sure because it's a significant business change, we would need to, at the very minimum, consult and likely consent from the consortium. I, I'm pretty sure that's gonna be the answer on that particular scenario. I know we've got quite, you know, if we acquire anything greater than AUD 50 million into an acquisition, we would need consent, so I'd be pretty confident the disposal. So I think you should take that as the answer, that we would need consent. If there's any change to that, I'll let you know.
Yeah, but that's what I believe it to be. That's correct? Yeah. That's right.
Yeah.
I've just been told.
Okay.
Okay, great.
Thank you so much.
Thanks very much. All right. Thank you very much for your attention. We appreciate it, and we look forward to catching up with investors over the next week or so. Have a good day. Thanks very much, everyone.