$400m carbon tax bill slugs Stanwell

QUEENSLAND'S largest electricity generator, Stanwell Power, will be hit with a carbon tax bill of $400 million, the government-owned corporation's annual report revealed yesterday.

The power company has controlled the lion's share of the state's electricity generators since the State Government restructured the sector from July 1 last year.

Its annual report marks the first official reporting since the restructure and reveals the corporation's carbon liability will be more than $400 million in 2012-13 on current emissions estimates.

Chief executive Richard Van Breda wrote in his review of the report the carbon tax would not be covered entirely by anticipated wholesale electricity price increases. "This will impact on our return on equity and hence the dividends we provide to our shareholders," he wrote.

But Mr Van Breda noted the company was "well prepared to operate under a carbon price", citing new systems the company had created to better understand its "real-time emissions liabilities".