All three companies needed extra funds to cover the soaring cost of their forward electricity contracts and to ensure they could keep operating as going concerns.

Forward contracts are bought to hedge, or stabilise, returns over time. But in the second half of 2021-22, the Ukraine war and the European energy crisis saw power prices, current and future, soar to record levels.

Stanwell said in its annual report released on Friday that prices were more volatile than at any other time in the history of the National Electricity Market.

QTC had to increase Stanwell’s working capital facility by more than a billion dollars to help it cover the soaring cost of the company’s forward contracts.

The company still managed to deliver a net profit after tax of $148.4 million thanks to a doubling in its electricity sales to more than $4 billion.

But this was more than 60 per cent down on the previous year’s profit of $375.4 million.

“This decrease is due to substantial unfavourable fair value movements on existing wholesale electricity contracts caused by the significant increase in forward curve pricing since November 2021,” Stanwell said.

Although the company remained profitable, a steep drop in its cash position and its drawdown of its newly increased overdraft with QTC saw its equity decrease by more than $1.8 billion during 2021-22 and become negative in April this year.

Stanwell says that that while the unfavourable movements in forward contract prices “have had a material impact on earnings and the company’s position, they do not reflect the underlying operational business performance”.

It acknowledges however that “the ability of Stanwell Corporation Ltd and the Group to continue as a going concern is dependent on continued access to debt facilities with QTC”.

CS Energy reported a net loss after tax of $95.5 million, mainly because of a $309 bill to cover forward contracts.

QTC increased the company’s working capital facility by $200 million to help cover the additional cost.

CS Energy too, noted that its ability to continue as a going concern depended on continued support from QTC.

CleanCo, established in 2019 to manage the Queensland Government’s renewable energy assets at the time, was the hardest hit of the three energy companies by the recent turmoil in energy markets.

It reported a loss of just under $300 million despite high-power prices and a more than doubling in sales to $250 million.

Again, the soaring cost of forward contracts were to blame.

CleanCo said it had to borrow $642 million from QTC during 2021-22, “primarily associated with the provision of cash collateral to support hedging contracts”.

The company, at the end of the year, had a net liability position of $175million compared with net assets of $227 million in the previous year.

CleanCo, in line with the other energy companies, noted its ability to continue as a going concern “is fundamentally dependent” on QTC’s continued support.