SaskPower, the provincially owned electricity company, made a $93-million profit last year, according to the annual report released in the legislature on Tuesday.

However, that won't stop the company from asking customers to pay more — it wants a seven per cent average rate increase.

Unlike other Crowns, which are required this year to forward all profits to the Crown Investments Corporation, SaskPower will be allowed to retain its net earnings.

The government did not require any SaskPower dividends to be paid either last year or this year.

"When you look at the capital needs of SaskPower going forward, there's a lot of pressures in the next few years with respect to infrastructure," said Bill Boyd, the minister responsible for SaskPower.

That will put pressure on the company to raise rates, but the government's goal is to try keep rates as affordable as possible, he said.

The Opposition NDP raised concerns about power purchase agreements SaskPower has signed with private companies, including a 20-year-deal with an Ontario company which is building a natural gas-fired power plant in Saskatchewan.

NDP MLA Warren McCall said such contracts are a form of privatization.

"Privatization like this, the attraction is no money down," he said. "There's no free lunches and certainly not when you're dealing with private power corporations and if you're not paying up front, where are you going to pay?"

McCall noted that Saskatchewan people are not being told how much SaskPower is paying private companies for power.

The company cites confidentiality concerns, but that means there is no way for the province's independent rate review panel to say whether the private company is charging a fair price for power or not, he said.

Customers should brace for big rate hikes, McCall said.

In 2008, SaskPower's profits were virtually the same as last year: $92 million.