From 2011 until now, the contribution of the wind sector to the national electricity basket has increased spectacularly to reach 15.79% in March this year (the last month for which we have data from ANRE). More specifically, the wind sector delivered 2.53 TWh out of a total of 16.06 TWh that went into networks.
More and more important in the energy mix, the wind sector remains vulnerable due to the well-known and always put under discussion unpredictability of the production, as well as due to the lower use rate of its installed power. Data for 2016 highlight, once again, the financial vulnerability of the wind power generation sector.
41 of the 58 companies owning dispatchable units by the middle of this year (according to Transelectrica) ended 2016 in the red. 37 of them were also in the red in 2015. In fact, 35 companies have been losing money in each of the past three years!
The data provided by the Ministry of Public Finance website shows that only 13 out of 58 companies registered profit in 2016 – for a total of 45.77 million lei. With the exception of Ialomita Power (EDPR Romania), all the others own small units with installed powers of 6 to 15 MW. The Ialomita Power (EDPR Romania) exception owns 132 MW at Făcăeni and last year had a net profit of 31.48 million lei, with a turnover of 151.9 million lei (20.7% margin). It was, however, the first year of profit for them since 2011, a period when the company lost 36.33 million lei in total.
And this is a happy case! Back to most of the wind energy companies, we see how the biggest generating capacities generally produce the biggest losses. The most affected nine companies reported for 2016 losses of over 50 million lei each, with a stunning 1.15 billion lei loss in total.
For a sector perspective, the total net losses in 41 companies (1.37 billion lei) exceed by 1.32 billion the combined total of 13 performers (45.7 million lei) in 2016. And this was not their worst year! In 2015, the total loss was 1.77 billion lei, while in 2014, it exceeded 2.24 billion lei. Overall, in six years between 2011 and 2016, net losses in the wind sector exceeded 5 billion lei.
