(Bloomberg) -- Centrica Plc chief Chris O’Shea got his first bonus in four years after the UK’s biggest household energy supplier profit soared to a record. 

After waiving his pay awards during the utility’s struggles in the Covid pandemic and then the energy supply crunch, Centrica’s chief executive officer was granted £1.42 million ($1.7 million) in addition to his £790,000 salary for 2022, the company said in its annual report Wednesday.

The payout comes after a turbulent year for Europe’s energy markets, with record power and natural gas prices boosting profit at Centrica and its peers to all-time highs. However, Centrica’s earnings have also come under fire from fuel poverty activists and politicians, especially after allegations that agents of its British Gas unit forcibly installed prepayment meters in homes occupied by vulnerable people.

O’Shea’s pay level is now closer to the average for CEOs at companies in the UK’s benchmark FTSE-100 index, which increased 22% to £3.9 million in 2021/22 from the previous year, according to consultants PwC.  

Half of O’Shea’s bonus for 2022 — £711,000 — is deferred into shares which are held for three years. In addition to this, the CEO was granted £2.26 million under the company’s long-term incentive plan that will vest in May 2024 before being subject to an additional two-year holding period.

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