Eesti Energia Marlen Tamm CFO said that although the group's sales revenue and profit decreased compared to last year, it was a good quarter in terms of operating cash flow. "Strong cash flow allows us to continue making strategically necessary investments to increase the share of clean and affordable electricity and to modernize the electrical grid," Tamm said.

In the first quarter, electricity market prices decreased by 9 percent in Estonia, 13 percent in Latvia, 14 percent in Lithuania, 38 percent in Poland and six percent in Finland. According to Tamm, this was also the reason that had the biggest effect on the decrease in the company's sales revenue and profit. 

The production volume and sales volume of liquid fuels remained at a similar level to the first  quarter of last year, at 129 thousand tonnes and 110 thousand tonnes, respectively.

The group's normalized EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was  €137 million in the first quarter, which was 32 percent lower than during the same period in 2023. The group's normalized net profit was €89 million, which was 38 percent lower than a year ago. The results were mostly influenced by the decrease in electricity prices across the entire Baltic Sea region and thus a smaller amount of electricity production from oil shale-fired generation units.  

In Q1 2024, Eesti Energia contributed a total of €83 million in taxes and environmental charges. Of this amount, €25 million was in various direct taxes, €58 million was for CO2 emission costs at market price. 

In the first quarter of 2024, the Eesti Energia Group produced 1,225 gigawatt-hours of electricity, of which, a record 646 gigawatt-hours was generated from renewable sources.

As a result of low electricity and gas market prices, the group's electricity production from non-renewable sources decreased by 24 percent to 579 gigawatt-hours in the first quarter. Due to the decrease in fossil electricity production and the 20 percent increase in renewable electricity production, renewable electricity accounted for 53 percent of the group's output. A year earlier, renewable electricity production accounted for 42 percent of the total output for the quarter.

The group's investments were €168 million.

According to Tamm, the company's current focus is on completing its ongoing investments. "Currently, we are focusing on completing the wind and solar farms under construction by Enefit Green, which will contribute to bringing more affordable and environmentally sustainable electricity to the market in the future. Additionally, the completion of wind and solar farms as well as the Enefit 280-2 pyrolysis plant would help ensure stable cash flow for the group," Tamm explained.

"This would help continue strategically important investments in the future as well," Tamm added.

More than half of the group's investments – €105 million –  was directed towards Enefit Green's development of wind and solar farms. The second largest amount –  €22 million – was invested in the development of the electrical grid.

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