Vattenfall renewables ‘yet to see impact from Covid-19’

Announcing results for Q1 2020, the company’s president and chief executive Magnus Hall said the company saw a sharp drop in prices in the electricity markets, beginning in January 2020.

“Thus far we have not seen any significant impact from Covid-19 on our renewable energy investment projects,” Mr Hall said.

“On the whole, however, we have a very uncertain economic situation, which requires stricter prioritisation of projects, so we decided not to participate in the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind tender in the Netherlands.

“In pace with the spread of Covid-19 around the world, the trend strengthened with a decline in electricity consumption resulting from the shutdown of society and a poorer economic outlook.

“For Vattenfall, the negative impact of the large price declines during the quarter was largely countered by price hedges, but the effects can still be clearly seen in the quarterly results,” Mr Hall said.

But despite this, profit for the period increased by Skr0.5Bn (US$50M) to Skr6.9Bn, an increase mainly explained by higher earnings from the operating activities together with a one-off effect from the sale of nuclear power production rights in Germany. Growth in wind power made a positive contribution.

Wind power generation increased during the first quarter supported by strong winds and new capacity from the Horns Rev 3 offshore windfarm in Denmark. Underlying operating profit for the wind segment grew by Skr0.7Bn to Skr2.1Bn.

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