The eight companies in the CEZ group operating in România ended 2015 with financial results quite similar to those in 2014. CEZ Group in Romania reported a 10% lower EBITDA, while the net loss has decreased by 47% – 460 million lei, compared to 871 million lei the previous year. The sale of energy to end users and the sales on the wholesale markets increased in 2015, and so did the wind production. The production recorded in 2015 by CEZ Wind Farm was of 1.286 GWh, 120 GWh more than in 2014, an increase due to favorable weather.

The negative impact from the production activities (mainly due to the provision for the tax on turbines retroactively calculated for 4 years) and from sales (mainly because of the decrease in sale prices and increase in purchase prices) was compensated in part by better results in distribution (higher distribution gross margin.

Provisions

In 2014, the financial results were affected by the assets depreciation. In 2015, CEZ group in România had to make new provisions, among them the provision for the tax on turbines retroactively calculated for 4 years (40 million lei, out of a total of 87,8 million lei).

More precisely, on January, 2015, the municipality of Fântânele issued a notification or the building tax applicable to all wind towers for the period 2010 – 2014 and the subsequent late payment penalties. At turn, the Company filed a complaint against the Decision of the Central Fiscal Commission regarding the fiscal classification of wind turbine towers as buildings.

Green Certificates

Though on a rise, the power generation from the wind farms is yet to positively impact the financial results. The main reasons the deferment from trading of one green certificate/MWh and by the suspension of the temporary accreditation for the green certificates support scheme for Cogealac. Overall, the Fântânele Wind Farm received 356 954 green certificates, in 2015.

According to Martin Zmelik, country manager CEZ România, an exit solution from the current congestion on the green certificates market might take into consideration three approaches which can be applied simultaneously:

• extending the validity of already issued green certificates
• reviewing the exemptions for the large electricity consumers
• a slight increase in the annual mandatory quota of electricity produced from renewable sources

“The first half of next year is the latest period for this to be solved, because the investors will start to write off big volumes of GCs”, said Martin Zmelik, responding to an energynomics.ro question.

SMART Transformation

In 2015, the tenth year of its presence in Romania, the group released SMART Transformation, designed to re-shape its entire distribution activity in the following years. Losses reached a “satisfactory level” of 10.62% of the total amount of distributed energy, following an investment of almost 162 million lei, in 2015 alone. Money was used for the integration of power stations into SCADA, the modernization and replacing of transformers, the installation of remote controlled equipment, and improvement of the quality of the low-voltage grid..

Electricity thefts, annually an estimated 4%, are yet an important problem for CEZ Distribuţie. “We believe there is space to improve the legislation, as at the moment, the legislation is more in favor to those who are breaking the rules, and not to those who respect them. What we have noticed is that there are contradictions between the secondary and primary legislation in regard with electricity theft”, Martin Zmelik said.

New approaches: ESCO, storage, charging stations

In order to prove its commitment to increasingly become a smart, flexible, client-oriented company, CEZ România put in place, in 2015, an ESCO project for public lighting in the commune of Giurgita (Dolj County). Investment came from the group and will be recovered from the energy savings allowed by efficient equipment for modern and energy-efficient public lighting system. CEZ România took care of the installation and will further provide maintenance for one decade.

Alongside, there is the e-mobility project. Precisely, CEZ has created a mini e-mobility infrastructure consisting of two electric car charging stations that are free to use by all electric car drivers stopping by, and two green-energy cars for the use of its employees (a fully-electric Renault Zoe and a hybrid Toyota Prius).

For the near future, CEZ România is focused on energy storage solutions for the energy generated by CEZ Wind Farm, and also on a own design electric charging station, which might be certified before the end pf the year.