CEZ Romania Group recorded losses in 2014 amounting to 871.685 million lei, compared to a net profit of 220 million lei in 2013, said Karel Kral, Chief Financial Officer of the company, and quoted by Agerpres. The losses were caused by “sudden changes” in the system of support for energy from renewable sources. Thus, the company was forced to reassess the current wind farm assets, which led to a loss of 743.768 million lei.
“Given the difficult external context created by legislative changes in the energy production from renewable sources, was a great achievement for us, as a team, to maintain stability of the group. In 2014, we had to pay more attention to internal processes and costs to compensate for unforeseen loss, occasioned by the substantial changes of the support scheme for energy from renewable sources in 2013”, explained Martin Zmelik, Country Manager and Chairman of the Board at CEZ Romania.
CEZ Romania recorded late last year, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 478.970 million lei, down from 452.194 million lei in 2013. Decreases were recorded in wind energy production (565.815 million lei), caused mainly by not receiving green certificates for Fântânele West (Tomis Team) and Cogealac (Ovidiu Development).
EBITDA resulting from distribution and supply activities increased by 82.384 million lei compared to last year, mainly due to the collection of outstanding receivables from the National Railway Company CFR SA and the Romanian Post Office. The amount of energy distributed to final customers was 6,316 GWh, which represents a slight decrease from the previous year, due to lower energy consumption, particularly in the non-household consumers segment.
At the end of 2014, CEZ Vânzare supplied electricity to 1,417,711 points of consumption, of which 71,571 were eligible customers, 4.798 non-household customers benefiting from universal service, 11,418 non-household customers whom have not used the eligibility right and have not applied for universal service, 1,329,924 residential customers.
Capital expenditure for the whole group reached a value of 223.652 million lei. The investment was mainly used for upgrading the distribution network, while a large part of investments in energy production were completed in 2013. During 2014, CEZ Distribution has focused on meeting the investment plan approved by ANRE for quality improvement in distribution services. Total investment in the electricity network was 207.102 million lei.
Mainly, investments were in the low voltage network (72.8%) and medium voltage network (20.3%), mostly related to programs made for reducing network losses. 2014 objectives related to improving operations and dispatching, improving quality indicators (SAIFI and SAIDI) and improving the meter reading was accomplished, said representatives of the group.
