National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom received UAH 4.8 billion of net loss in 2020 versus UAH 3.7 billion of net profit in 2019, the communications department of Energoatom said on Thursday.
According to the company’s financial statements for last year, its net income amounted to UAH 45.648 billion, down by 6.6% compared to the previous year (UAH 48.846 billion), and gross profit – UAH 6.837 billion (51% less, UAH 11.569 billion).
At the same time, EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, amounted to UAH 13.3 billion.
As the company said, UAH 4.8 billion of net loss arose as a result of four factors beyond the control of the state-owned enterprise.
The first one is the cost of the exchange rate difference when servicing foreign currency loans. Thanks to them, at present, in particular, the project for the construction of the Central Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel and the comprehensive (consolidated) program for improving the safety of NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) power units are being implemented. Due to the significant growth of the euro and the U.S. dollar during 2020, the company’s losses in servicing foreign currency loans amounted to UAH 6.601 billion.
The second factor is the compulsory reduction in the volume of commercial products of Energoatom from 80.6 billion kWh to 73.7 billion kWh in accordance with the forecast balance approved by the Energy Ministry in April last year. As a result of balance constraints, some NPP power units were put on reserve for a period of one to three months, others operated with capacity constraints from 10% to 40%. As a result, the company received less than UAH 4.7 billion of income.
The next factor is direct losses due to the discrepancy between the cost of electricity produced by the NPP and the price at which Energoatom supplies it to the population within the framework of public service obligations (PSO) imposed on it by the government. As a result of the sale of half of the electricity produced at a price of UAH 0.01 per kWh, within the framework of the PSO project, losses amounted to UAH 1.2 billion.
The fourth factor is the total debt to Energoatom in the amount of UAH 22.6 billion. Of these, UAH 11.6 billion is the debt of the no longer functioning state-owned enterprise Energorynok, UAH 6.5 billion is the debt of the Guaranteed Buyer and UAH 4.4 billion is the debt of NPC Ukrenergo.
“That is, the operating activity of the state enterprise is profitable, and the net loss at the level of UAH 4.8 billion is explained by the cost of the exchange rate difference when servicing foreign currency loans, losses from the implementation of PSO and balance sheet restrictions, as well as the huge accounts receivable of Energoatom,” the company said.
At the same time, Energoatom plans to complete the first quarter of 2021 with net profit.
National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom plans to increase the annual volume of electricity production to 95 billion kWh in two or three years, while the expected volume of electricity generation this year is 78 billion kWh, acting President of Energoatom Petro Kotin said at the forum Ukraine30 on Wednesday.
“We know how to do this, and we have big plans for the future, and if now we plan to generate 75 billion kWh in accordance with the energy balance, or maybe 78 billion, then our goal is to reach production of 95 billion kWh per year,” he said.
According to the head of the company, the company has planned a repair campaign for the next two to three years so that no more than two or three units will be under repair in winter.
As Deputy Energy Minister Yuriy Boiko said at the forum, during the preparation of the energy balance forecast for the current 2021, during discussions between NPC Ukrenergo, profile specialists of the Energy Ministry and Energoatom, by optimizing the repair site of Energoatom, it was possible to increase the additional generation of nuclear power plants (NPP) in the annual balance by 3 billion kWh.
“I think that this is a good indicator. Moreover, today there are preconditions that this figure will increase,” Boiko said, recalling the launch of Khmelnytsky NPP power unit No. 2 after the scheduled repair a month earlier than the planned date.
At the same time, the deputy minister said, three months of this year will be problematic for Energoatom – from August to October – during which the energy system will not be able to encompass all the electricity produced by Energoatom.
“In order to maximize the production of Energoatom, a number of measures should be taken. First of all, it is necessary to optimize the repair site so that repairs are not carried out in the cold season, but shifted to the summer. The next step is to optimize the repairs, namely those of them, which take place in the cold season,” Boiko said.
According to the Deputy Energy Minister, the construction of electrical installations for the production of hydrogen, the creation of data centers on the basis of NPP sites, the construction of flexible generating capacities, as well as the completion of power units No. 3-4 of Khmelnytsky NPP and No. 5 of Rivne NPP are among the long-term measures that will maximize the production of nuclear power.
SOE National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom has entered the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance, which was created this summer by the European Commission.
According to a report on the Energoatom website, membership in the Alliance will provide the national nuclear generating company with an opportunity to receive up-to-date information on the development of hydrogen energy in the EU countries and to participate in events aimed at introducing the latest hydrogen technologies.
The accession to the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance was a logical continuation of the company’s course towards the implementation of new promising projects in the field of hydrogen use, acting president of Energoatom Petro Kotin said, quoted by the press service.
“Our goal is to efficiently use the capacities of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, and in a global sense, to root green technologies in the energy sector to combat climate change. Energoatom has undeniable potential to become one of the leaders in hydrogen energy not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe, providing carbon-neutral production of hydrogen at nuclear power plants,” Kotin said.
Electricity production by all power plants of state-owned enterprise Energoatom in January-October 2020 decreased by 6% (by 4.057 billion kWh), to 63.214 billion kWh compared to the same period in 2019.
According to the company’s report, the target for electricity production for the specified period was exceeded by 2.8%.
The power plants of the state-owned enterprise supplied 59.059 billion kWh of electricity versus 63.170 billion kWh in January-October 2019.
The share of Energoatom in the total structure of electricity production in the country amounted to 52.8%, which is by 0.3 percentage points less than in the ten months last year.
The volume of capital investment use amounted to UAH 7.091 billion versus UAH 11.293 billion in January-October 2019, financing of capital investments some UAH 7.404 billion versus UAH 12.544 billion.
According to the results of the reporting period, Energoatom transferred UAH 8.980 billion to the budgets of all levels, insurance payments amounted to UAH 2.593 billion.
The installed capacity utilization factor of the enterprise amounted to 62.2%, which is 4.3 percentage points less than in January-October 2019. At the same time, the coefficient of readiness to bear nominal electric load amounted to 71.8%, which is 4 percentage points more than in the ten months of 2019.
After tests at power unit No. 3 of Yuzhnoukrainsk nuclear power plant (NPP), the program for testing excitation systems of turbine generators of power units of Ukrainian NPPs, included in the catalog of measures of the agreement on the terms of future integration of the united energy system of Ukraine with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity ENTSO-E, has been successfully completed.
According to the website of Energoatom, in addition to specialists of Energoatom and Ukrenergo, representatives of the ENTSO-E Consortium and DMSS-Engineering with the support of the USAID Energy Security Project took part in testing the excitation systems of turbine generators.
The company recalled that Energoatom began this program on August 17, 2020 together with Ukrenergo as part of checking the compliance of the domestic generation with the ENTSO-E technological standards. Corresponding tests were carried out at power unit No. 2 of Rivne NPP, No. 1 of Zaporizhia NPP, as well as power units No. 1 and No. 3 of Yuzhnoukrainsk NPP.
According to Energoatom, on the basis of research data, the ENTSO-E Transmission System Operators Consortium (EMC, MAVIR, PSE, SEPS, 50Hertz and Transelectrica) will create a common mathematical model of the synchronous operation of the Ukrainian and European power systems. Also, this information will be used to study the static and dynamic stability of the united energy system of Ukraine, provided that it works in parallel with ENTSO-E.
Energoatom noted that Ukrenergo signed a service contract for the implementation of this item in the catalog of events with the CONSORTIUM in 2019.
At the same time, commenting on the completion of the tests, the Ministry of Energy noted on the website that in addition to the planned technical measures, in order to successfully complete the synchronization, it is necessary to certify the transmission system operator in accordance with the requirements of the Third Energy Package of the EU.
ENERGOATOM, ENERGY SYSTEM, ENTSO-E, SYNCHRONIZATION, UKRENERGO
Acting President of National Nuclear Generation Company Energoatom Petro Kotin and the H2 company have signed a memorandum of cooperation on the construction of a computing data center near Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), the press service of Energoatom said on Thursday, August 20.
According to the press service, the data center will become one of the largest in Europe, and the investment will amount to $700 million.
The press service reported that the document signing took place in presence of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during his working trip to Zaporizhia region.
In turn, PrJSC Ukrhydroenergo during the same visit of the president announced the signing of a memorandum of cooperation with H2 LLC on the construction of a hydrogen electrolysis plant.
The expected investments in the project may amount to about EUR 300 million. The cooperation envisages “the construction of production facilities with constant electricity consumption”.
As reported, during his working trip to Zaporizhia on August 19, Zelensky attended the presentation of an action plan for the implementation of the Development Strategy of Zaporizhia region for the period until 2027, which provides, in particular, for the construction of data centers.
During a meeting with Acting Energy Minister Olha Buslavets in early August, Director of H2 LLC Andriy Zhovner and CEO of Yom Capital Ltd Walter Komarek voiced their interest in building a hydrogen plant and a data center in Ukraine.
Investors, in particular, are interested in the southern region of Ukraine, where there is a significant surplus of electricity, cooperation with NNPGC and PJSC Ukrhydroenergo.
