Lower power sale prices hit Enefit Green's Q1 profit

Estonia-based renewable energy producer Enefit Green AS (TAL:EGR1T) saw its first-quarter net profit drop by 13% on the year to EUR 30.5 million (USD 33.3m), mainly as a result of the lower market prices for electricity.

The Baltic company operates 457 MW of renewable electricity generation capacity, including wind, solar, co-generation and hydropower plants in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. In addition, it has 81 MW of installed heat production capacity.

In its first-quarter financial report released last week, Enefit Green’s CEO Aavo Karmas said earnings were negatively impacted by the contracted market prices for electricity and electricity purchase costs for balancing its portfolio of long-term electricity contracts (PPAs).

Due to the rising operating expenses, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 10% in annual terms. Revenues, meanwhile, improved by 18% on the year thanks to the favourable wind conditions and high reliability of assets, which led to an increase in power output during the three months.

More details about Enefit Green’s first-quarter results can be seen in the table.

68.8

41.1

30.5

406

495

With close to EUR 92 million of investments in January-March, the Tallinn-based firm is in the process of expanding its fleet of power generation assets. “Enefit Green has a clear road map to quadruple the production capacity on its core markets in the coming years,” the CEO said.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.092)

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