Contact Energy's CEO warns potential price drops for residential customers are "complicated", despite increased generation and record profits.CEO Mike Fuge told Checkpoint the purchase of Manawa Energy and higher renewable energy generation would help lower energy costs for businesses fairly quickly.But that won't automatically translate to residential customers, he said."There will be a flattening if not a reduction in the energy part of their bills, but unfortunately lines and transmission charges are still forecast to go up, so there's a bit of a balancing act that will happen over the next twelve months."Contact also revealed a partnership with data centre company CDC to build a 250-megawatt facility near Contact's recently retired Taranaki combined cycle gas power plant.The proposed development would have an IT load of 250MW, with total electricity demand potentially reaching about 350MW once ancillary systems were included.New Zealand was highly attractive as a destination for data centres, "right up there with the Nordic countries, Norway, Sweden and the like with the amount of renewable energy we have in our system," he said."We have great fibre connectivity and we have a highly skilled workforce, so all those factors allow us to compete with the very best in the world in those Nordic countries."Contact had several bottom lines around data centres, including that they pay the same prices as other customers for electricity, engage with the community, are "environmentally responsible" and help enhance grid stability."If those criteria are met, I think they're a great proposition for the country," Fuge said.The proposal remained at an early stage and would require consents, customers and financing before any final decisions were made.He disputed comments by Finance Minister Nicola Willis that what was best for gentailers (generator-retailers) commercial returns was in direct opposition to what was best for the New Zealand economy as a whole.Fuge said renewable energy was one of the country's "superpowers" and posed the opportunity to underpin economic growth going forward."It's been a long time coming, but the amount of renewable energy opportunity identified in this country, we could rebuild the grid again in terms of new development opportunities."What we've uncovered these last five years is almost double the size of the Maui gas field when it was first discovered," Fuge said.