Net profit in Q1 2021 stood at €26.5 million, the company says, compared with losses of over €2 million in Q1 2020.

At the same time, Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell by 46 percent, to €72.4 million, on year.

Andri Avila, Member Eesti Energia CFO, said the strong overall result was based on the increase in production and sales volumes, higher energy prices, and lower fixed costs than last year.

He said: "Compared with 2020, the temperatures in the first three months of this year were on average almost six degrees lower. This led to a 10 percent rise in electricity consumption."

"The increased demand for electricity in turn raised both market prices and the need for our thermal power plants," Avila added, according to a company press release.

Electricity prices on the Nord Pool energy market were on average twice as high as in 2020, the firm reports, and were the primary factor in the rise in sales revenue.

The company made several commercially important decisions, it says, in Q1 2021, including plans for a wind farm to be built at Purtse, Ida-Viru County, by 2023, and the acquisition of Finnish company Imatra (though this was originally reported as an acquisition by grid distributor Elektrilevi – ed.), a regional network services provider in Lääne County in western Estonia, and also Viimsi, just outside Tallinn

"Looking to the future, our new business line of entering into long-term, up to ten-year wind energy sales agreements with Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian business customers seeking to reduce their environmental footprint and gain long-term price security is even more significant," Avila said of future plans.

"The volume of the agreements concluded in three months reached two terawatt-hours, which is about a quarter of Estonia's annual electricity consumption," he went on.

While Eesti Energia's renewables subsidiary Enefit Green was its primary focus in wind power, it also has other renewables partners, the CFO added.

Internationally, the group's electricity sales in its home markets from Finland to Poland increased by 13 percent over the year to 2.5 TWh.

Within the Baltic States, sales growth was fastest in Lithuania, where Eesti Energia has become the second largest electricity seller after the gradual opening up of the electricity market there.

More detailed information is here.

Electricity production increased by one third on year to Q1 2021, to 1.3 Twh, again due to higher market prices and lower temperatures.

Eesti Energia's thermal power plants operated at a capacity of up to 1,200 MW during peak consumption, the company said, which fulfilled expectations on maintaining production capacity to ensure the average electricity consumption in Estonia.

Liquid fuels production remained the same as in 2020, at 125,000 tons.

Global market demand for liquid fuels and product prices have increased quarter-on-quarter in oil markets, almost reaching levels they were on the eve of the coronavirus crisis, Eesti Energia says.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!