8/13/2025

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the AGL Energy full-year results briefing conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. I would now like to hand over the conference to Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Damien Nix. Please go ahead.

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the webcast of AGL's full-year results for the financial year 2025. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land I'm on today, the Gadigal people of the Aurora Nation, and pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. I'd also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the various lands from which you are all joining. Today I'm joined by Gary Brown, Chief Financial Officer, Joe Egan, Chief Customer Officer and Marcus Brockoff, Chief Operating Officer. I'll get us started and we'll have time for questions at the end. This slide provides a good overview of the four key themes which Gary and I will cover today. Firstly, our strategic execution in FY25, with approximately $900 million deployed towards battery developments and strategic investments. CER and our demand-side flexibility portfolio advanced through the acquisition of South Australia's virtual power plant from Tesla in July, and excellent progress made on grid-scale battery developments. We've reached a final investment decision on the 500 megawatt Tomago battery, and encouragingly, the 500 megawatt Liddell battery remains on track for commencement of operations in early 2026. AGL also delivered strong results for the year, in line with guidance, which I'll cover shortly. Importantly, we continue to deliver for our customers. Amidst a year of heightened market activity, we increased our already strong customer satisfaction and continue to provide our customers with great products and services. Our customer markets business recorded good growth in overall customer services, primarily led by growth in telecommunications and Netflix customer services, with energy customer services marginally higher. Our customer satisfaction continues to remain very strong at 81.6. Strategic MPS has doubled to a score of plus eight, and we've maintained healthy spread to market churn of 4.3 percentage points. In July, we also launched AGL Community Power, sharing the benefits of the energy transition, including with customers who may not be able to directly access the benefits of solar and residential batteries. Importantly, our investment in our flexible portfolio mitigated the earnings impact of the lower fleet availability in FY25, which was impacted by an additional major plan unit outage compared to the prior year, coupled with some unplanned outages in the second half. We're targeting a stronger performance in FY26 as we continue to invest in the long-term availability and reliability of our thermal fleet, and I'll speak to this in more detail. Encouragingly, despite lower availability, volatility captured through trading was almost two percentage points higher, with a further improvement expected in FY26 in line with stronger targeted fleet performance. We continue to invest in growth and the future of our business, particularly in flexible asset fleet capacity. I'll speak to how we're unlocking value through multi-asset orchestration and how we continue to capture a disproportionate share of the rapidly growing EV market and broader portfolio benefits this represents to AGL, particularly the ability to orchestrate EV battery load in the future. As I touched on, we're making excellent strides in progressing our grid-scale battery investments, and we've also strengthened our long-duration firming optionality through the acquisition of two early-stage pumped hydro projects in the Upper Hunter region. Turning now to our strong financial results, which are in line with guidance. As we'd previously announced, we expected a decrease in earnings compared to FY24 due to lower wholesale electricity prices resetting through our contract positions. consumer margin compression following a period of heightened market activity, as well as our FY25 pricing decision to not fully pass through the year-on-year cost increases to customers to help with customer affordability. Additionally, increased depreciation and amortisation was driven by the continued strategic investment in our thermal fleet and the first full year of operations of the Torrens Island battery. This was reflected in our reduction in EBITDA and underlying net profit after tax compared to FY24. We also saw the breadth of our flexible asset portfolio help mitigate the earnings impact of outages in our thermal plants, particularly in the second half of the year, coupled with strong performance from the Torrens Island and Broken Hill batteries. Higher income tax paid, coupled with our prudent investment in sustaining CapEx, resulted in lower operating free cash flow. However, we continue to maintain a strong level of cash conversion. You'll also see that we reported a statutory loss for this year, attributable to the key drivers noted on this screen, which Gary will explain in more detail. A final ordinary dividend of $0.25 per share has been declared, fully franked. bringing the total fully franked dividend for the 2025 financial year to $0.48 per share, which equates to a 50% payout ratio for the full year. We also provided our FY26 financial guidance, which I'll discuss at the end of the presentation. Looking forward, as Gary and I will discuss, we aim to more than offset any earnings impact of coal and gas re-contracting with earnings from our significant investment in flexible assets and the broader delivery of our strategy. Moving now to safety, customer and employee metrics. I'm pleased to report we've continued the momentum from our half-year results and recorded a material improvement of our total injury frequency rate, down to two per million hours worked. driven by our acute and relentless focus on preventing injuries across the organisation, which has included numerous safety awareness campaigns and targeted workshops. This is certainly an encouraging result. However, we must continue to strive to further improve this metric. I've already spoken to our customer satisfaction and strategic MPS scores, and our employee engagement score has improved to 73% as we continue to see great engagement and momentum across the business. We're proud to be delivering real impact for our customers, community and First Nations people. And on the screen, you can see some key achievements for the year. We've delivered our two-year $90 million customer support package, which included $76 million of payment matching and debt relief. Key learnings of the program have been embedded into everyday operations. I've already spoken to the launch of AGL Community Power, And we also recently announced that we'll be partnering with the South Australian Government to build and operate 16 community batteries. We've also invested $6 million in the communities in which we operate, including the provision of EV subscriptions and charging units for OzHarvest and the Kanaikanae Land and Water Aboriginal Corporation. And as part of our commitments in our Reconciliation Action Plan, we've purchased more than $13 million in goods and services from First Nations-owned businesses, exceeding a two-year Reconciliation Action Plan target. Today, we're also pleased to present our 2025 Climate Transition Action Plan, or CTAP, which demonstrates a commitment and progress towards achieving our decarbonisation strategy. I won't speak to this in too much detail, as we'll have a separate briefing session to the market next week. But essentially, we've bolstered our interim Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction targets, prioritising direct emissions reductions, and set a new ambition to reduce our Scope 3 emissions by 60% compared to FY19 levels, following the closure of our cold-fire power stations. Importantly, we're on track to add 12 gigawatts of new renewable and firming capacity by the end of 2035, and have built on our ambitions since the inaugural CTAP, increasing our interim target from 5 to 6 gigawatts by FY30, of which we're targeting at least 3 gigawatts of grid-scar batteries. We are cementing our position as a responsible leader of Australia's energy transition and invite our shareholders to support the decarbonisation commitments outlined in the CTAP via the stay on climate resolution at our upcoming 2025 Annual General Meeting. I'll now spend a few minutes talking to the continued transition of AGL, including a considerable strategic execution over the past three years since a refreshed strategy was announced in September 2022 before handing over to Gary. First, just a recap of our two primary strategic objectives, connecting every customer to a sustainable future and transitioning our energy portfolio. This slide shows a great depiction of our considerable strategic execution over the past three years. I won't speak to all of these, but will highlight the key themes and announcements. We've made great progress in our ambition to connect every customer to a sustainable future, headlined by the material expansion of our suite of EV plans, propositions and partnerships, launch of Electrify Now platform in 2023, execution of renewable link PPAs and our strategic partnership and equity investment in Kalooza, and more recently, the launch of AGL Community Power. The transition of our energy portfolio has been headlined by the material advancement of our development pipeline and focused execution on our growing grid-scale battery portfolio, including the FID we recently made on the Tomago battery. Our 300 megawatts of operational batteries are performing well, and we have 1,000 megawatts of batteries under construction and a clear pathway to FID for a further 900 megawatts of grid-scale batteries. Turning now to our FY27 strategic targets, we have made strong progress. Starting on the left-hand side, I've already spoken to our strategic NPS score, which is in a great position, and we've almost reached our digital-only customers target, with our app continuing to be the highest-rated energy app in the market. Encouragingly, our cumulative customer assets installed metric has more than doubled over the year, and we've now exceeded our green revenue target. Turning to the right-hand side, we are targeting higher EAF in FY26 and continuing to drive improvements to step this up to 88% target over the coming years. Additionally, decentralised assets under orchestration are 20% higher at almost 1.5 gigawatts, a great result. Crucially, our investment in targeted M&A over the past three years has supported the delivery of our strategy. This slide contains seven key deals which I'd like to highlight. On the customer front, the acquisition of South Australia's virtual power plant from Tesla has advanced at demand-side flexibility and grown at decentralised assets under orchestration by almost 35 megawatts. A strategic partnership and 20% equity investment in Colusa is core to the delivery of the Retail Transformation Programme, and the acquisition of Everty has broadened our capabilities in EV charging and energy management solutions in a rapidly growing EV market. We also recently announced the acquisition of Ampol's Energy Retail Customer Book, with approximately 50,000 customers across New South Wales and Queensland joining AGL in FY26. Turning to the transition of our energy portfolio, where we've strengthened our optionality and firming and storage capacity through the acquisition of firm power and terrain solar, and more recently, strengthened optionality and long-duration firming capacity through the acquisition of two early-stage Upper Hunter pumped hydro and wind projects. And finally, our joint venture with Sameva Renewables for the development for the Pottinger Energy Park, which includes a proposed 830 megawatt wind farm and 400 megawatt battery, is a prime example of how we're actively partnering to accelerate renewable asset developments. I want to spend a few more moments speaking to the transition of our energy portfolio. We've made great progress over the past three years, driven by the advancement of our development pipeline and material growth in our flexible asset fleet. Our development pipeline of 9.6 gigawatts has more than tripled in size since we announced the inaugural CTAP in 2022, supported by the acquisition of Firm Power and Terrain Solar last August. Additionally, we have 9 gigawatts of early stage opportunities. Overall, we are very well positioned with the size, maturity and the quality of our development pipeline. The focus remains on the continued timely execution of projects of the highest portfolio value, with the near-term priority on accelerating the development of our grid-scale battery portfolio. On the right-hand side, you can see that we're making great progress towards our expanded 6 gigawatt target of new firming and renewable projects by FY30, with 1.68 gigawatts of projects in operation, under construction or contracted, as well as a clear pathway to FID for a further 900 megawatts of battery projects. Crucially, our flexible asset fleet has grown to 8.3 gigawatts, including 3.2 gigawatts of cold-fire unit flexibility, enabling AGL to curtail generation during the daytime periods of low or negative pool pricing. Importantly, this spread across a diverse range of asset types. Our growing grid-scale battery and virtual power plant assets can respond to peak customer demand events in seconds, whilst our hydro and gas peaker assets can start up and generate electricity in a couple of minutes. Turning now to an update on how we continue to deliver for our customers in FY25. Our customer market's performance in FY25 was headlined by sustained growth in the customer base and continued strong customer satisfaction in a competitive market. Total services to customers increased by 78,000, driven by growth in telecommunications and Netflix services, with a marginal increase in energy services. Importantly, we've maintained strong customer metrics, including our leading energy brand, digital offering and loyal customer base, with a favourable churn spread to rest of market of 4.3 percentage points, a pleasing result in a competitive market. On the right-hand side, as we previously flagged, you can see the decrease in consumer customer gross margin. However, this is now stabilised and is expected to improve in FY26. Pivotal to the delivery of our CAR strategy is unlocking value through multi-asset orchestration, delivering benefits to AGL and its customers. On the left-hand side, you can see five key components of our multi-asset BPP. Firstly, residential batteries enable rapid response load shifting that benefits the networks, our customers and AGL. I've spoken in the past how we can orchestrate hot water systems to solar soak and optimise load profile management. Importantly, we are capturing value from the opportunity to orchestrate ever-increasing flexible load of EV batteries through smart charging and enabling vehicle-to-grid integration. Added to this is our EV Night Saver Plan, empowering customers to optimise their assets and consumption through AGL initiative signals and incentives. And finally, Demand response, and in particular, peak energy rewards program, is driving shared value by encouraging and rewarding customers to shift or reduce load during peak periods. And on the right-hand side, you can see the clear year-on-year momentum that helped drive a 20% increase in decentralised assets under orchestration to 1.5 gigawatts, with material increases in our customers who have a demand-side flexibility product are on peak energy rewards program, or have their customer-controlled hot water load orchestrated by AGL. We continue to make good progress on building a future-ready business through the Retail Transformation Program. We've deployed our first technical releases, including the introduction of Salesforce and Kaluza, and we've made a range of operating model changes which are already delivering benefits. As with any large and complex customer transformation program, we continue to evolve and enhance our delivery and planning approach. Pleasingly, as you can see on the left-hand side, Colusa has announced key updates, headlined by its expansion in the Australian market through the acquisition of Bage Technologies and internationally through strategic partnerships with Mitsubishi and PG&E in North America. Within OVO Energy Australia, Colusa Retail and Flex Solutions are delivering an excellent MPS score of plus 35. OVO Energy Australia is also leading the market with the EV tariff and smart charging experiences and has seen strong adoption of load-shifting products, like the Free 3 plan, which offers three hours of free energy from 11am to 2pm. And finally, a reminder that the retail transformation is a four-year program, is expected to deliver pre-tax savings of approximately $70 to $90 million from FY29, as previously announced, as well as the targeted digitization, speed to market, and customer experience improvements you can see on the screen. Now to a discussion on the growing flexibility in our portfolio, starting with an overview of fleet performance and operations. After a year of excellent thermal fleet performance in FY24, the commercial availability of our thermal fleet was down 12 percentage points, mainly due to an additional major planned outage compared to the prior year, coupled with unplanned downtime in the second half. Encouragingly, volatility captured through trading increased despite the lower availability result, and we aim for this to further improve in FY26 in line with higher targeted thermal fleet availability. Overall, generation was 1.2 terawatt hours lower, again impacted by lower coal-fired generation, partly offset by the longer running of the gas fleet and a stronger contribution from our renewable generation assets. Looking forward, we are targeting stronger fleet availability for FY26. The decline in EAF was driven by two key factors. First, an additional planned major outage compared to FY24, and second, a rise in unplanned downtime in the second half, largely due to boiler tube leaks and one-off component failures. Please note that the 6.3 percentage point decrease in EAF largely accounted for the 1.2 terawatt hour decline in generation volumes in FY25. In response, we've taken targeted and proactive actions such as the engagement of global and allergy specialists to confirm failure mechanisms and guide targeted tube replacements, improved operating practices and strengthen quality management systems at both Bayswater and Luoyang A. Of note, FY25 EAF performance for both Bayswater and Luoyang A remained above the NEM median. We recognise that we must invest strategically in EAF improvements and we continue to evaluate the balance between cost, risk and performance to meet our asset objectives. Looking ahead, we are targeting higher EAF in FY26 and a continued upward trend in thermal fleet performance. Despite the overall weaker availability performance, our flexible asset fleet continues to capture value in an increasingly volatile energy market. The first graph shows how our growing portfolio of flexible assets has enabled AGL to realise a premium above the average market price for the period. This premium has steadily increased since FY22 with a slight moderation in FY25. Importantly, our continued investment in flexible assets is expected to grow this premium further over time. A key point I'd like to highlight is that our growing portfolio flexibility and in turn our ability to optimise realised pricing outcomes on the supply side is a material contributor to earnings. Considering our significant annual generation volumes of over 30 terawatt hours per annum, The second graph breaks this down by asset type, encouragingly also showing premium we're achieving for our coal-fired generation assets through our investment in unit flexibility. As I've mentioned at the half-year results, and just as importantly, we can observe the premium that hydro, gas and batteries are able to achieve based on being very flexible assets. It is these asset classes that we continue to focus on delivering as we progress through the energy transition. Turning now to how we're investing in growth and the future of our business, beginning with a thematic discussion on future expected electricity demand growth within the NEM. Encouragingly, the tailwinds for future electricity demand growth continue to be positive, with flexible capacity key to unlocking future value. Starting with the graph on the left-hand side, which shows that 2025 has recorded the highest winter daily electricity demand for New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria since 2017. A particular note in 2025, Victoria recorded the highest daily winter demand ever achieved. Moving further to the right, where IEMO predicts significant growth in electricity demand over the next decade, with the major driver of this growth being in the electrification of the home, transportation and broader industry, including data centres. And we continue to see increasing demand for electrification products from our consumer and our large business customers. Added to this is the significant opportunity to orchestrate the ever-increasing flexible load of EV batteries, encouraging of off-peak charging and thereby shifting load to the overnight period through pricing signals, which I'll talk to on the next slide. And the graph on the right-hand side shows the significant amount of grid-scale battery storage, as well as storage through consumer energy resources that are acquired by 2035 as the NEM transitions away from cold-fire generation. At the half-year results, I highlight that we're capturing a disproportionate share of the rapidly-grown EV market. And as you can see on the left-hand side, we've continued to outpace the growth in the number of EVs on the road over the last six months. We have a compelling suite of EV plans, propositions and partnerships, which will form the foundation of future expected growth. And we now have approximately 35,000 EV energy plant customers with excellent NPS score of plus 41, for our EV Night Saver customers. On the right-hand side, you can see the success of incentivising off-peak charging with regards to our EV Night Saver plan, which has seen up to 22% of customers' daily load shifted to the lower tariff overnight window, optimising both pricing and portfolio outcomes for AGL and our customers. We're also leveraging our scale to accelerate growth in the consumer battery portfolio, unlocking value for customers and the market, as well as presenting earnings and supply portfolio benefits to AGL. By delivering an integrated customer experience, we're enabling growth at pace and scale, giving customers greater connection and control to maximise the value of their assets. On the right-hand side, you can see clear value pools that support potential future earnings and portfolio benefits. These include enhanced consumer peak load management through greater demand-side flexibility, with residential batteries able to respond very rapidly to large market demand events. Additionally, we're able to realise an arbitrage spread and avoid the purchase of caps on the orchestrated loads. We also have the potential to access behind-the-minute demand growth through innovative models, and importantly, we observe significantly lower churn rates for our residential VPP customers over the past five years. Our new grid-scale battery projects will further enhance our flexible asset capacity and broader portfolio management. As I mentioned a few moments ago, our grid-scale battery portfolio can respond to peak demand events in seconds, crucial in a transitioning energy market, which is shifting away from baseload thermal generation to variable renewable energy. We'll also continue to leverage our innovative in-house capabilities to optimise the performance of the grid-scale battery assets as part of the integrated portfolio, targeting returns above what a merchant operator would typically achieve. Pleasingly, the Torrens battery has consistently operated at at least 99% availability, demonstrating excellent reliability. Additionally, a sophisticated state of charge coordination delivers peak performance during market volatility events and our advanced analytics across all asset types maximises asset value and operating efficiency. On the right-hand side, you can see our portfolio of operational and contracted and grid-scale batteries, as well as the 1,000 megawatts of battery projects under construction in New South Wales. Finally, denoted in dark blue are the additional 900 megawatts of grid-scale battery projects we have a clear pathway to FID. I'll now hand over to Gary.

speaker
Gary Brown
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Damien, and good morning, everyone. This slide shows an overall summary of our financial results, which I'll cover in more detail on the following slides. Overall, our strong financial performance for the year was in line with guidance. As we previously announced, we expected a decrease in earnings compared to FY24 due to lower wholesale electricity prices, resetting through contract positions, consumer margin compression following a period of heightened market activity, as well as our FY25 pricing decision to not fully pass through the year-on-year cost increases to customers to help with customer affordability. Additionally, increased depreciation and amortisation was driven by the continued strategic investment in our thermal fleet and the first full year of operation of the Torrens battery. This was reflected in our reduction in EBITDA and underlying net profit after tax compared to FY24. We also saw the breadth of our flexible asset portfolio help mitigate the impact of outages in our thermal plants, particularly in the second half of the year, coupled with a strong performance from the Torrens Island and Broken Hill batteries. As we committed to, our operating costs were broadly flat. We also announced a fully franked dividend of 25 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the 2025 financial year to $0.48 per share, fully franked, which equates to a 50% payout ratio for the full year. This is at the bottom of our targeted dividend payout ratio of between 50% and 75% of underlying net profit after tax. As we flagged the FY24 full year results, operating free cash flow was impacted by the one-off impact of $381 million worth of government bill relief credits received in FY24, with the majority of this amount remitted to customer accounts in FY25. We also note that we have invested heavily in growth this year, with approximately $900 million deployed towards battery developments and strategic investments as we press forward with the delivery of our strategy. I will also speak to the strong earnings stream these batteries are expected to deliver once they are operational. This significant cash outlay for growth, combined with the timing of energy bill relief, were two key drivers of the higher net debt of $2.9 billion. Importantly, we maintained our BAA2 investment grade credit rating with headroom to covenants. I'll first take you through group underlying profit in more detail. Starting on the left-hand side, you will see one small non-recurring item attributable to the closure of the Camden Gas Project and divestment of the Surratt Gas Project. Moving further to the right, as we previously flagged, we expected a softer customer market performance, primarily driven by the pricing decision to not fully pass through year-on-year increases to support our customers, which resulted in margin compression across the consumer electricity portfolio. Additionally, margins were impacted as customers switched to lower-priced products, affecting both the consumer gas and electricity portfolios, with consumer gas margins also impacted by lower average demand due to milder weather. It's important to note that we expect an improvement in consumer-customer margin in FY26 and for this to stabilise going forward. This was partially offset by a stronger margin performance by our Perth Energy and telecommunications businesses, coupled with a favourable movement in retail transformation operating expenses and lower net bad debt expense. Integrated Energy's performance was impacted by expected lower wholesale electricity prices resetting through contract positions, with the breadth of our flexible asset portfolio helping to mitigate the earnings impact of outages in our thermal plants. The softer trading and origination gas margin was driven by increased gas costs, resulting from the roll-off of lower-cost legacy supply contracts. Our growing battery portfolio continues to deliver very strong performance, with the $17 million bar for batteries reflecting a full year of operation of the Torrens battery compared to only nine months in the prior year, as well as earnings contribution from the Broken Hill battery, which commenced operations in the second half, This takes our total EBITDA contribution for the operational batteries to $45 million for the year. The higher growth expenditure related to increased development capability as we deliver upon our ambition to add new renewable and firming capacity over the next decade. The bar of the integrated segment relates to increased spend to maintain and improve thermal fleet plant availability, coupled with higher labour costs. Moving further to the right, the increase in central managed expenses is attributed to technology spend driven by additional licensing costs to support the Retail Transformation Program and other initiatives including cyber security. At the FY24 full year results, we indicated an uplift in depreciation and amortisation in FY25 that has come in line with our expectations. This increase was attributable to the investment in our thermal assets and thereby the resulting asset bases of these assets, as well as the full-year depreciation impact of the Torrens Island battery. In addition, we see an increase in the environmental rehabilitation asset relating to the impact of a reduction in the discount rate. And finally, lower income tax paid reflected the marginal decrease in underlying profit before tax. In a period of ongoing inflationary pressures and investment in growth, we are really pleased that we have kept operating costs flat as committed to last August through disciplined cost management, digitisation and automation. As you can see, the impact of inflation was more than offset by significant productivity initiatives implemented across the organisation. We are committed to controlling operating costs in our core business. And in FY26, the impacts of inflation are again expected to be offset by productivity and business optimisation benefits. Looking forward, we expect an increase of approximately 3% in FY26, primarily driven by the growth part of the business as we continue to deliver on our strategy. In addition, we expect a small increase in variable sales costs. Briefly touching on CapEx, as previously indicated, the uptick in thermal sustaining capital was primarily due to the two major plant outages for this year, compared to one in FY24. Just a reminder that over the medium term, sustaining capital spent on our thermal assets is forecasted between $400 and $500 million per annum. This prudent investment is to improve the availability and reliability of our thermal asset fleet, which is critical to the NEM whilst we undergo the transformation of our operating fleet. In line with our strategy, this year's growth expenditure centred on the construction of the Liddell battery, approximately $375 million of the total $750 million forecasted construction cost. FY26 will follow a similar theme as we press ahead with the construction of the Tomago battery. Broadly speaking, FY26 growth capital spend is expected to comprise roughly $185 million for the remaining construction of the Liddell battery, approximately $485 million of the estimated $800 million total construction costs for the Tomago battery, with the bulk of the remaining spend expected in FY27. In addition, our customer markets growth span will focus on further advancing our distributed energy and electrification solutions initiative, being approximately $80 million. This significant investment in growth is the key to unlocking future value for the business, and I'll explain more on the next slide. Looking forward, AGL aims to more than offset any earnings impact of coal and gas re-contracting with earnings from its significant investment in flexible assets such as batteries as well as the broader delivery of our strategy. You can see that our 300 megawatt fleet of operational grid scale batteries are already delivering strong performance and returns and we have 1,000 megawatts of projects which are under construction and expected online in the coming years. The Liddell battery is expected to commence operations in early 2026, and the Tomago battery is expected to commence operations in late 2027, after already reaching feed in July of this calendar year. Please note that the graph shows actual and expected earnings for existing and committed projects only, noting that we have a clear pathway to feed for a further 900 megawatts of grid-scale battery projects, with each project expected to take roughly two to three years to build once it's reached FID. Just a reminder that we are targeting ungeared post-tax asset level returns at the upper end of the 7% to 11% range for our grid scale battery projects. And these assets will be depreciated over 20 years on a straight line basis. Crucially, we are well positioned to navigate through coal and gas recontracting over the medium term. Our ongoing coal recontracting strategy leverages Bayswater's major key advantages, including its strategic location and significant coal infrastructure, large stockpile capacity of around 4 million tonnes and ability to accept lower quality coal. Pleasingly, in the second half, we were able to procure an additional coal supply for FY26 and FY27 and a material discount to the prevailing Newcastle coal prices. Note that with some legacy contracts rolling off, Bayswater's coal fuel costs are expected to increase in FY26. However, this impact is expected to be largely offset by the pass-through of cost increases under existing wholesale contracts. Turning to gas, where our portfolio remains well balanced through to 2027. With the QGC supply contract expiring in December 2027, we are evaluating several supply opportunities beyond 2028, including new gas service agreements from domestic suppliers and LNG imports. Our approach to recontracting is supported by our market-leading gas storage capacity and geographical breadth of our demand base. With legacy contracts other than QGC rolling off, our gas input costs are expected to increase in FY26, noting that we expect gas margins to revert to historical levels with the impacts of elevated commodity pricing easing three years after the commencement of the Ukraine-Russia conflict in 2022. As we have previously indicated, the investment in the transformation of our business is expected to drive higher depreciation and amortisation over the medium term. Depreciation and amortisation for FY25 was $56 billion higher, driven by the continued investment in thermal assets, updates to rehabilitation provisions and the resulting higher asset bases, coupled with the full-year depreciation impact of the Torrens Island Battery and commencement of the Broken Hill Battery. As you can see, we expect an uplift of up to $100 million in FY26, based on the drivers on the right-hand side of the screen, noting that the expected commencement of the Liddell battery in early 2026. Our grid scale battery assets will drive up depreciation over the medium term. However, as I've covered, are expected to be a significant contributor to earnings. A key point I'd like to highlight is our strategic cumulative sustaining capital spend on our thermal assets will be capitalised and depreciated over shorter asset lives as both Bayswater and Loyang A near their targeted retirements in the coming years. Our strong operating cash flows have been deployed towards significant investment in growth with approximately $900 million spent on battery developments and strategic investments coupled with our strong cash conversion result. I'll quickly speak to some of the key movements. The reduction in operating cash flow was driven by the unwind of most of the $381 million worth of government bill relief that was received at the end of FY24. If you exclude the cash flow impact of the bill relief from 24 to 25, the main driver for the reduction in underlying operating cash flow was lower EBITDA in FY25. You will also see the cash tax payment of $268 million, reflecting PAYG installments for FY25, combined with final tax payments for FY24. Just a reminder that we paid a fully franked interim dividend and declared a fully franked final dividend, with the expectation that fully franked dividends will continue. Additionally, much of the significant items cash flow relates to implementation costs for the Retail Transformation Program. The significant uplift in investing expenditure was driven by strategic investments to accelerate the delivery of our strategy, namely the acquisition of firm power and terrain solar and our strategic equity investment in Colusa. Overall, operating free cash flow normalised for the impact of bill relief was $567 million lower at $788 million. As you can see on the bottom left-hand side, our cash conversion rate excluding margin calls, rehabilitation and the timing of bill relief remains strong at 97%. Moving now to net debt and funding, We have spent approximately $900 million on growth and strategic investments funded from operating cash flows. The other drivers of high net debt were the $390 million worth of fully franked dividends paid to shareholders, the prudent spend on the flexibility and availability of our assets, and the unwind of the majority of the $381 million worth of energy bill relief received in FY24. Our funding position remains strong following the successful amendment and extension of our syndicated facility agreement in April, which was increased by $310 million to just over $1.5 billion, with all tranches extended by over two years. This is a great outcome and evidence of strong lender support as we continue to deliver on our business strategy and decarbonisation plan and importantly maintain our investment grade credit rating. Following the refinancing of the SFA, we don't have any major debt maturing until FY27. Our liquidity position remains at almost $1.3 billion in cash in undrawn commuter debt facilities. Before I hand back to Damien, I want to talk to our disciplined approach to capital allocation and balance sheet management that is designed to fund growth, strengthen the core business and deliver shareholder returns. Firstly, we have a commitment to maintain a strong credit profile and BAA2 investment grade credit rating. Secondly, we will continue to allocate growth capital to projects of the strongest portfolio value and strategic fit, whilst also driving value from our core business. Crucially, we have multiple pathways, funding optionality and flexibility available to AGL in terms of our portfolio rebuild ambition. including assets funded on our balance sheet, where we're targeting returns at the upper end of our 7% to 11% range for firming assets. In addition, we have projects that are developed through joint ventures and partnerships, where we have the ability to share the costs as well as the ability to contract and offtake. Our flexible dividend payout ratio also helps us to strike the right balance between realising timely opportunities in the energy transition and strengthening the core business whilst delivering sustainable dividends to shareholders. In terms of capital management, we see potential in capital partnering as well as capital recycling, unlocking value from completed projects and redeploying capital into new growth initiatives. We also expect to commence a sales process during FY26 to explore a potential divestment of our 20% equity investment in tilt renewables. And finally, on the right-hand side of the slide, you can see an indicative depiction of the forecast sources and uses of cash over the medium term. Thank you for your time, and I'll now hand back to Damien.

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Gary. I'll now conclude by talking to the FY26 guidance, which reflects a continued strong outlook for underlying EBITDA, with an expected increase in depreciation and amortisation, as well as higher finance costs impacting underlying MPAT, as we press forward with the delivery of our strategy. As you can see on the screen, FY26 underlying EBITDA guidance reflects an expected improvement in plan availability and asset fleet flexibility, including the commencement of the Liddell Battery in early 2026, as well as stronger customer markets earnings due to the improvement in margin and growth. These drivers are expected to be partially offset by gas margin compression due to the expiring gas supply contracts, knowing that the gas margins are expected to revert to historical levels with the impacts of the elevated commodity pricing easing three years after the commencement of the Ukraine-Russia conflict in 2022. Higher operating costs largely reflect our continued investment in growth. Of note, the impact of inflation is expected to be offset by productivity and business optimisation benefits. FY26 underlying impact guidance reflects higher underlying EBITDA expected to be more than offset by an increase in depreciation and amortisation due to the continued investment in the availability and flexibility of AGL's assets, as well as the anticipated commencement of the Liddell Battery, coupled with higher finance and interest costs. As I mentioned at the beginning, looking forward, we aim to more than offset any earnings impact of coal and gas re-contracting with earnings from our significant investment in flexible assets and the broader delivery of our strategy. Please note that we do intend to continue paying fully franked dividends in FY26, noting that future franking levels and the dividend payout ratio is subject to Board approval. Concluding with market conditions, this slide shows the observable curves for both swap pricing as well as cap curves. As you can see, FY27 forward and cap pricing is broadly in line with FY26. Of course, it is too early to predict how pricing will eventuate for the remainder of FY27 and onwards. However, overall, we believe our portfolio is well positioned with our growing portfolio of grid-scar batteries and flexible assets. Thank you for your time, and we'll now open to any questions.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

We will now open for questions. To ask a question, press the star key followed by the number one. Can I please ask you to mute any other devices before asking questions over the conference line? We'll take one question at a time, and if time permits, we will circle back for any further questions. The first question comes from Tom Allen at UBS. Go ahead, Tom.

speaker
Tom Allen
Analyst, UBS

Good morning Damien, Gary and the broader team. On the result, if it wasn't for higher electricity procurement costs arising from weaker generation availability over the half, the business looks to be performing okay. So despite having capacity to pay out more, you've called out in today's result that part of the board's conservatism in again only paying out 50% of NPAT in dividends is to preserve liquidity and to support the retail transformation. Can you please elaborate on that in more detail and what's driving the need for such conservatism here? What scenario do you see pressure building on the balance sheet and what changes to the outlook would the board need to see to award shareholders with a stronger than 50% dividend payout?

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Tom. Good morning. Let me see if I can unpack that question a little. Clearly, what we've released today is we saw really strong performance from our flexible assets. That's the key point here. It offset some of the major outages we saw in the first half. We had two versus one. But in the second half, we did have some unplanned outages. Those flexible assets absolutely performed well above where we anticipated them. And that is why you see us investing in the likes of the time ago battery just recently. In terms of paying the dividend, the dividends at 50%, we have a big capital outlay over the course of the next year. We still retain that flexibility in our dividend policy. And that flexibility will continue to exist in years where we potentially have either higher or lower capital deployment. But what's important, we see absolutely the ability to offset the impact of coal and gas recontracting by the deployment of our flexible assets, particularly batteries. And that's why we're going after these as quickly and as hard as we can.

speaker
Tom Allen
Analyst, UBS

Okay, thanks Damien and last week the draft recommendations in the Nelson Review were released recommending some sensible changes to wholesale market settings that seek to overcome this tenor gap that's restricting investment in new capacity that the market needs. So I was wondering if you could please outline how the draft recommendations might impact the outlook for AGL. How do you think they might impact prices for common capacity contracts and also baseload swaps in New South Wales and Victoria?

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Look, I think the first thing to say is there's been really good engagement across both the industry and AGL through the Nelson Review. I think it's still very early days to, you know, comment precisely how all that will work. I mean, I think the tenor gap's an important one. The tenor gap is a gap that we need to solve for those outer years of eight-plus years. I think for us, we want to make sure through the Nelson Review there is the right mechanisms for things such as, you know, affirming capacity, whether it be gas speakers or long-duration storage such as pumped hydro. They're the sort of things we want to make sure is appropriately in the mechanisms going forward. Again, it's early. There's not a lot of detail yet in terms of how the mechanism will work. I think they've talked about a warehousing mechanism for those outer years. Again, that's something we want to understand how that's all going to work into the future.

speaker
Tom Allen
Analyst, UBS

Okay, thanks Damien.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks Tom. Next question from Anthony Mulder at Jefferies. Go ahead Anthony.

speaker
Anthony Mulder
Analyst, Jefferies

Good morning all. I wanted to start on guidance if I could. So the increase you've put through for FY26 EBITDA at the midpoint is more than offset by that increase in DNA and net interest costs. Is that a reflection of the The earnings from Liddell have been obviously staged over several years. Are you seeing that rehab costs now expected to be a bigger drag on earnings going forward than can be offset by the operating earnings of the businesses?

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

I think the way to think about it, you see EBITDA at the midpoint lifting year on year. That is on two fronts, or three fronts should I say. One, improvement in consumer customer markets result. We expect that to step up next year. The second being we expect higher generation levels going forward. Also, we see the Liddell battery coming into play from early 2026 forward. plus the broader flexibility of assets. Again, I'll keep reiterating that. The performance we're seeing out of those flexible assets and the way they're operating in the market, it certainly helped offset some of those impacts we saw through generation. But again, we do expect higher generation, and we're standing behind those commitments around higher generation into 26 and 27. With the higher rehab costs, I guess, is the point of what detracts from that, though.

speaker
Gary Brown
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, look, what I'd say is if you look at the depreciation slide, there's sort of three key buckets there. One is investment in thermal assets, and you can see that we are continuing to invest in that fleet as the life of those assets comes towards its end. It's depreciating over a shorter period, so of that circa $100 million increase, a decent chunk of it is that. Then you've got the growth bucket, which is primarily depreciation in relation to the batteries, which you should be able to calculate. And then you've also got the impact of rehabilitation assets, as you're talking about, as well as that asset value increases and it depreciates over the period. It's a small proportion of that $100 million uplift as well.

speaker
Anthony Mulder
Analyst, Jefferies

Okay. And just lastly, if I could, on tax, the expectations around the taxpaying level for FY26, it was a particularly low level of tax rate in the second half of 25 at 25.4%.

speaker
Gary Brown
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, so we would expect that that would normalise towards that sort of 28% to 30% range.

speaker
Anthony Mulder
Analyst, Jefferies

Very good. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks, Anthony. Next up, we have Henry Meyer from Goldman Sachs. Go ahead, Henry.

speaker
Henry Meyer
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

O'Neill, it's good to see the expected battery earnings forecast and comments around more than offsetting the impact of coal and gas contracts expiring long term. Could you share perhaps whether you expect those earnings and cost reduction to completely or more than offset the impact of those contract expires in 2028 or if it's further out in this long term horizon when that could be?

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Now, look, that's absolutely what we're saying. So over the duration as we build these batteries and have them in the market, they will more than offset those contractions of both the coal and gas recontracting. We're already seeing today the value of Liddell battery, the Broken Hill battery, and again, the Liddell battery coming in in 2026. And that's why we've taken the FID as quickly as we have. Again, on the Tomago battery, we want those in the market as quickly as we can. We've got a slide there that demonstrates that. just where we see those returns growing into the future.

speaker
Henry Meyer
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Okay, thank you, Damian. Just to double check, so we're saying 2028, you can more than offset the earnings impact from the coal and gas expires?

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

That's what we're saying, yes.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Yeah, that's correct.

speaker
Henry Meyer
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Yeah, great. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks, Henry. Next up, we have Gordon Ramsey from RBC. Go ahead, Gordon.

speaker
Gordon Ramsey
Analyst, RBC

Thank you, everyone. Just wanted to comment on the FY26 guidance on gas margin compression and outlook going forward. It seems to me like you have a high dependence on signing up for LNG imports to be able to kind of balance your gas book beyond 2027. And are you prepared to be an anchor buyer in support of one of these projects getting off the ground?

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Gordon. Look, the way to think about it is we're in discussions with many players in the market, not just LNG players. LNG players we certainly are in discussions with, but both local production, both Bass Straight, both local, both LNG. And that will be from – we are contracted out to 28, so we're comfortable from that point in time. But we are in many discussions, as you'd expect, about getting the right gas in the portfolio. And the important thing from a value point of view, it's how we use that flexibility of gas, how we use the storage of gas, how we get that back into the market.

speaker
Marcus Brockhoff
Chief Operating Officer

But Marcus, do you want to comment? I think we are not bound by LNG imports. It's one source of supplies which we are targeting. But I think, you know, we want to have competitive cards in the portfolio going forward, and that's the reason why we have not made a decision so far on one or the other projects. We want to mature the negotiations, and then we are coming back to the market. I think it's very clear that we are... A foundational buyer, I think that has been acknowledged by the market, as you said. So if we are committing to one project, that will then most probably going up. But we have made no decision so far.

speaker
Gordon Ramsey
Analyst, RBC

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks, Gordon. Next up, we have Dale Kernders from Baron Joey. Go ahead, Dale.

speaker
Dale Kernders
Analyst, Baron Joey

Morning guys. I just want to ask around your operating cash flow conversion and the impact of the provisions you've made today. For FY25 I think there was a $98 million onerous contract impact and I think the current provision is $141 million onerous contract. So out of a total of about $1.4 billion on the balance sheet now. So what sort of cash draw should we assume from those onerous contracts going forward?

speaker
Gary Brown
Chief Financial Officer

Yes, so I think the first thing to think of is the onerous contract has gone up by, the provision has gone up by $398 million post-tax. That's primarily driven by a reduction in the green price in the future expectation of the curves. I think it's important to note firstly that we've risk managed that position, particularly in the next 12 to sort of 24 months. So we've already effectively priced that through to customers. Towards the back end, as we've seen in the past, there's a lot of volatility in those curves. It's mark to market valuation. They go up, they go down. So we'll have to wait and see how that plays out. The way you should think about it is it's, you know, circa $400 million increase. That's over a 10 year period. Again, these numbers will bounce around. From a cash conversion perspective, we're reporting a 97% cash conversion adjusted number today. And the impact as a result of this, should it play out the way that it's provided for in the books, is probably a few percentage points across that period. So it's, again, an area that will continue to bounce around and has bounced around in the past as well.

speaker
Dale Kernders
Analyst, Baron Joey

So that $140 million... is kind of the right level unless green certificate prices or power prices recover.

speaker
Gary Brown
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I mean, again, it's difficult to talk exactly how that is into the future, but, you know, you're talking about those types of quantums you've got. I think through the cash flow this year was $98 million, and it'll be a little bit bigger again into the future. So it's certainly that number you talked about.

speaker
Dale Kernders
Analyst, Baron Joey

Okay thanks and then just on the comment about replacing the earnings losses, can you just sort of give us a steer on what capex you're assuming? Is it still that three to four billion dollar growth capex or maybe towards the upper end as you're accelerating batteries?

speaker
Gary Brown
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, so the way you should think about that, Dale, is all of the batteries that we've currently deployed. So we've got obviously Torrens has done, Broken Hill's done, Liddell, which is $750 million of capital, and we've also got Tomago, which is about $800 million. So when we talk about those assets being deployed, and the last one of those is the back end of 27, We're confident that the earning stream out of that will be able to offset any reduction that we could see in both the coal and gas recontracting. In addition to that, we've got another 900-odd megawatts that we would expect to get to FID in the next sort of 12 to 18 months, which would also contribute across that period as well.

speaker
Dale Kernders
Analyst, Baron Joey

Okay, thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you, Dale. Next up, we have Rob Coe from Morgan Stanley. Go ahead, Rob.

speaker
Rob Coe
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Good morning, thank you for the presentation. I just wanted to get a little bit of colour perhaps from Mr Brockhoff on commentary about forward curves, very helpful commentary on forward base load and cap. Just any early indication from the new evening and morning peak contracts and how they'll flow through, if you could please?

speaker
Marcus Brockhoff
Chief Operating Officer

I think at the moment, as we said, I think the curves are drifting sideways. If you look at 26, 27, 28, there's a small backwardation even on the caps and on the swaps, but it's very slightly, so you can say it's staying stable. I think it's too early to say what the impact of the new products is.

speaker
Rob Coe
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

have an influence on the market i think it's still too early to define the impact okay all right thank you and on a personal note congrats on on your uh next stage uh mr brockhoff and uh i guess it's a compliment that it takes two people to replace you um well my second uh question uh is uh i guess referring to the nelson review one of the other recommendations was the uh market making obligation or MMO which AGL currently has I think in a couple of states. Just if you could provide your views on that proposal please.

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

But I think through our submissions, Rob, we were promoting the certificate mechanism. Again, would I say we love the market-making obligation? No, we don't. However, again, we're looking at this from an overall package perspective. What is the right thing for the market going forward? Again, there's still a lot of detail to flow under. under the bridge right now. We'll continue to work with them. It's now out for discussion right now. And so we'll continue to work out what do we think is the right package of measures for this market going forward. Okay. Many thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks, Rob. Next up, we have Ian Miles from Macquarie. Go ahead, Ian.

speaker
Ian Miles
Analyst, Macquarie

Hey, guys. Can you maybe just give a little bit of a colour about your confidence in the recovery of the consumer gross margin? particularly when we saw gas being quite weak.

speaker
spk00

Thanks, Ian. Jo here. Yeah, look, we did, as flagged, see a reduction in consumer margin, and that was really driven by our decision to hold back some of the price increases last year. We also saw quite a lot of competition in the second half, with some retailers really chasing growth at big levels of discounting, where we didn't really see value in that levels. We're very confident in a return to stronger margins next year as we've flagged. And importantly, I think it's good to note that our customer satisfaction remains really strong. So we're in a really good position. We've also got the Ampol Energy portfolio joining us this financial year. So, yeah, we see good outlook there.

speaker
Ian Miles
Analyst, Macquarie

Okay. And you made a comment in your speech, Damien, with regards to gas gross margins sort of falling backwards. And I was sort of intrigued, like, I understand the step down of gas when the contract comes to an end, but can you give us some colour again around what's driving that lowering for FY26 and 27 and how material that is to the business? Yeah.

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, look, I'll get Marcus to comment. It's not majorly material. What we're trying to call out there is what we saw that step up, particularly through that 24-year. In terms of year-on-year movements, that was a component of that year-on-year movement when we saw those higher prices roll through into 23 into 24. What we're seeing is that thing come back out. But, Marcus, do you want to make any other comments on that one?

speaker
Marcus Brockhoff
Chief Operating Officer

i think the you have seen most probably out of the report that the that the overall gas portfolio price has increased by 0.9 dollar per gigajoule going forward for fi26 we see also a slight increase in the portfolio price not at this scale but it will be lower but there will be a slight increase due to the fact that some of the contracts are rolling off. So there is still a bit of compression in the gas margin, but I think we are coming back to levels from 23. I think we have seen quite a risk premium in the gas margins due to the Ukraine crisis and so on, as Damian also elaborated on. So we are coming back to normal levels.

speaker
Ian Miles
Analyst, Macquarie

Okay, thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks, Ian. We have another question from Anthony Malter from Jefferies. Go ahead, Anthony.

speaker
Anthony Mulder
Analyst, Jefferies

Yeah, I just wanted to follow up on the fleet availability. Obviously, you've got a target out there for FY27. You had expectations of improving that through the second half of 25 that didn't really deliver. We've now seen further outages at Luoyang. Are you investing enough into the fleet availability at this particular point, or does that need to move higher?

speaker
Marcus Brockhoff
Chief Operating Officer

I think, Anthony, it's always a trade-off. I think we are not satisfied with the fleet performance. I think that's very clear. I think particularly in the second half. What is more important for us is, you know, when we looked and when we also consulted some specialists, it's not a systemic issue. I think we had a lot of one-offs when it comes to in induced draft fence outages commercial conveyor issues and so on this were one offs and i think we are proud to be honest with you and we are also confident that we are targeting an higher availability and i think the first six weeks, if you follow how we are performing in this financial year, have shown that this is not a systemic issue. I think at the moment we have an availability on the coal feed around 93%, but I don't want to continue now to forecast that this will stay like this. We have still two major outages of around 170 days, which are coming up at Basewater Unit 3 and Loyang Unit 2. But I think we have not a systemic issue and availability should be a targeting and higher availability is this financial year.

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

And I think the other thing just to call out is, you know, again, you know, the breadth of our flexible assets now means we're making and can make the right decisions at the right time. Like, you know, we can run a unit to whether it be a weekend and take it out over a weekend so you can manage the impacts as well from a trading standpoint. So you're seeing us do a lot more of that as we manage unit outages. And look, again, we are standing here today confident that we will lift the availability into 26 and still have that target into 27. Great. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks, Anthony. We have another question from Rob Coe from Morgan Stanley. Go ahead, Rob.

speaker
Rob Coe
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Good afternoon. Thanks for letting me back on. I just thought I'd ask a little bit more colour if I may on slide 37. This is perhaps for Mr Brown on the capital allocation and you've talked about capital recycling in the past but it's now explicitly written in the preso and you've also talked about exploring selling down the tilt stake. Can we just maybe get some colour on how you're thinking about that now that the For example the Torrens battery is up and running and delivering. Is that now a candidate for capital recycling and how are you seeing the market please?

speaker
Gary Brown
Chief Financial Officer

Yes, I think the way you should think about capital recycling, it's probably more focused in our development pipeline. We've got some very promising wind developments in there. It's those types of assets that we would look to bring up to FID and then at some point they're yet to be determined. That's what we're talking about in terms of asset recycling. Our plan is to keep the batteries on our balance sheet because we think that they are best suited both from a cost of capital perspective and also the trading abilities that we have internally as well. So that's really the focus there.

speaker
Rob Coe
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Okay, thank you. Maybe just to follow up, I guess there's been a very interesting deal done in New South Wales by Ampere Energy and the Wombilla people, First Nations group. Is that something that you've looked into? Is there any possibility with any of your pipeline for innovation on that front?

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Off the cuff role, I'm not across that particular one, but we work very, very closely with our First Nations groups in all the areas we work in. There's actually a slide in the pack about the amount of work that we are doing there. With the Liddell Battery, you know, again, we engage very closely with the First Nations, you know, at that site as we do all sites. But let me take that on notice and I'll come back to you. I'm not across that one specifically.

speaker
Rob Coe
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Yeah, no worries. Thank you so much. Cheers.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks Rob. We have another question from Henry Meyer from Goldman Sachs. Go ahead Henry.

speaker
Henry Meyer
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Thank you. I just want to come back to slide 32, looking at the battery earnings. Could you share what assumptions you're using here for ARB spreads, what the split of earnings might be between cap contracts, storage ARBs and ancillary services, which are now getting quite saturated?

speaker
Gary Brown
Chief Financial Officer

Yes, I think the way to look at that, and we've actually shared some information probably about 18 months to two years ago. I think it might have even been at one of our strategy days where you should think about the caps have been roughly... 60, 70% of the revenue stream. You should think about arbitrage at being, you know, 20, 30% of the revenue stream. And you should think of FCAS as being, you know, anywhere from up to 10% type thing of the revenue stream. You know, clearly the value of these batteries is in the capacity and the ability to sell or defend caps there as well.

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

I think nothing's really changed in what we've seen in the market there. It's absolutely playing out precisely as we thought strategically with those batteries. And different batteries in different states will also, depending on the market, will perform different tasks. And for us, it's about finding those constraints on the market or those best areas where we can place them, not only to get them stood up quickly, but also where they're best placed in the network as well. Great.

speaker
Henry Meyer
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Thanks, Luigi. be willing to quantify the assumed spread in caps prices in that forecast?

speaker
Gary Brown
Chief Financial Officer

No, but I think what you should do is if you look at the back, we sort of give a little bit of indication as to at least where they've traded historically and also where the current curves are. But yeah, we're not forecasting or talking about where we see those in the future other than to say that We are very confident when we talk about the returns profile of these batteries over 20 years. We've talked about a 7% to 11% return. We are currently seeing these assets perform in the upper end of that range, and we're very confident they will continue to trade across the period at those levels.

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

And maybe just also just to pick up a comment you made, I think you said with so many batteries coming into the market, Don't underestimate the sheer amount of batteries that are required in this market over the coming decade. It is enormous. So, again, getting into the market also early is, I think, an important part of what we are trying to do. But so many batteries and so much capacity needs to be built in this market. That's why, strategically, it makes a huge amount of sense for us to be putting our capital there now. Got it.

speaker
Henry Meyer
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Makes sense. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks, Henry. We have another question from Gordon Ramsey from RBC. Go ahead, Gordon.

speaker
Gordon Ramsey
Analyst, RBC

Thank you. I just want to refine the view on the sustaining CapEx on your thermal assets. I know the guidance is 400 to 500 million. You mentioned today 170 days downtime for planned outages at Bayswater and Loyang. Should we be thinking at the upper end of that range, considering the amount of work that's being done and your goal to increase reliability and availability in FY26?

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Now, look, I think the way to think about it is the year just gone, we did two majors. Next year for 26, we've got two majors. For Loyang, we do a major every six years per unit, whereas Bayswater, we do a major every four years. So in every, if you like, third year, we'll have a lower amount of capital, give or take. So that's when we're at the lower end. of that scale. When we get to the end of the life of these assets, those capital numbers also come right down. We are spending now the major outage work to get those assets and those major components. So in many cases, they can run all the way through to closure. So you will, towards the back end of this decade, start to see those numbers come right off as well.

speaker
Gordon Ramsey
Analyst, RBC

Aren't you worried that's going to affect availability and reliability, though?

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

No, because the work that we're doing now is that major outage work, you know, whether that be on the turbines or whether, and I'll get Marcus to talk to this, but some of that major work that you won't need to do again, it's that 10-year work you're doing right now on the turbines and so forth. When you get towards the back end, it's in more of that maintenance work you're doing to bring it through to the end of its life.

speaker
Gordon Ramsey
Analyst, RBC

Assuming things like tube leaks happen all the time, so... We just have to expect maybe more of them.

speaker
Damien Nix
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Absolutely. And we forecast for tubes and unplanned outages through our guidance numbers. You're going to continue, you will continue to see tube outages and that maintenance required on the plant. I'm talking about that strategic large-scale outage planning that happens under the five- to ten-year asset planning. That will start to come off towards the back end of the decade as you've got through that final phase.

speaker
Gordon Ramsey
Analyst, RBC

Okay. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks Gordon. That's all we have time for today for our Q&A session. Thank you for listening. Thank you all. Cheers.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

-

-