The national electricity carrier, Transelectrica, achieved a net profit of 30 million lei in the first half of the year (H1), down by 69% compared to the same period last year, according to the report submitted to the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

EBIT operating profit (before interest and taxes) was higher by 18 million lei (+ 23%) compared to the same period of the previous year.

The revenues from transport and other activities on the energy market registered a 9% increase due to the higher realized transport tariff (+ 7%) practiced in the first half of 2019 and of a 12.3 million lei increase in interconnection revenues, these increases completely absorbing the decrease of electricity consumption at national level, which was reflected in lower taxed quantities (-0.1%).

According to company representatives, the context of the first semester of this year was a difficult one, characterized by high costs with the operation of the transport system, especially the costs with the purchase of electricity to compensate for the technical losses in the network, according to Agerpres.

“Despite the fact that the physical level of the technical losses was lower than the previous year (percentage of technical losses of 2.38% in H1 2019 compared to 2.76% in H1 2018), the total costs with the purchase of energy were significantly higher (+ 23.6 million lei representing +19%) due to the substantial increase of the energy price in the wholesale market (the total average purchase price was 41% higher, from 198 lei/ MWh in H1 2018 to 279 lei/ MWh in H1 2019) “, specifies the Transelectrica report.