Energy, Investments, Lithuania

A drop of almost 17% was recorded in revenue from trade in balancing-regulation power, while revenue from system services fell by more than half, 54%, the company said in a statement.

"Lower income from sales of balancing-regulation power reflects a more responsible behaviour of the suppliers of balancing energy and the lessons learnt from the previous year – they buy balancing energy from the system operator in very rare cases only and instead try to secure these services at the power exchange," commented Rimantas Busila, member of the Management Board and the Director of the Finance Department at Litgrid.

A minor drop in the group's expenses was recorded during the reporting period compared with the first half of 2013, showing decrease of 11% in procurement of power and related services as well as costs of telecommunication and IT systems. Costs related to the procurement of power and related services comprised the major share of the group's expenses constituting LTL 86 million (EUR 25 million) or 38%. The group's EBITDA In the first half of 2014 was LTL 63.2 million (EUR 18.3 million); EBITDA margin fell from 37.6% in the first half of 2013 to 29%.

Loss before taxes of the Litgrid Group for the first half of 2014 was LTL 9.2 million (EUR 2.6 million), the loss resulting from system services and power transmission operations.

"The results of individual operational segments depend on the specifics of regulatory scheme, where the result of the previous year influences the prices for transmission and system services of the coming year. In other words, our profit from the previous year becomes a loss in the coming period because the national regulator (the National Commission for Energy Control and Prices) sets a tariff for the subsequent reporting period so that the part of the profit "returns" to the electricity consumers through a smaller tariff," Busila explains.

"In my opinion, current regulatory mechanism that will remain in power until the end of this year is not balanced enough and determines the loss regardless of operations of the company, nor taking account of the corporate assets that are used ore being created. An extensive professional discussion of the issue is needed," Daivis Virbickas, Chairman of the Board and the CEO of Litgrid says.

In the first half of 2014, Litgrid transmitted 4,541 million kilowatt hours of electricity via high voltage transmission networks for domestic consumption, the volume being 1.8% smaller than in the first half of 2013.

The largest share of investments in the first half of the year was related to the implementation of strategic projects constituting LTL 62.3 million (EUR 18 million); or 67% of total investments. Investments into the reconstruction and expansion of the transmission network amounted to LTL 31.3 million (EUR 9 million) accounting for 33% of total investments.