In the first half of this year, the operator of the ČEPS energy transmission system increased its pre-tax profit by a third to CZK 2.4 billion year-on-year. Total revenues also grew, by almost half to 19.2 billion crowns. This follows from data from today’s press release of the company, which ČTK compared with data presented by the company a year ago. During the first six months of this year, ČEPS transmitted 32,492 gigawatt-hours of electricity, which was 2.2 percent more year-on-year.
According to the company, the volume of energy transferred within interstate interconnected markets (so-called MC shipping and coupling) again had a significant effect on the growth of revenues and costs. After deducting them, ČEPS’s revenues reached CZK 8.4 billion in the first half of the year, which was approximately CZK 300 million higher than in the same period last year.
In the first half of the year, ČEPS’s total costs rose by about half to 16.8 billion crowns; after deducting MC shipping and coupling, they fell by 284.6 million crowns to almost six billion crowns compared to the first six months of last year. The company’s investments in long-term intangible and tangible assets in the first half of this year amounted to 1.3 billion crowns. According to the company, these investments include the modernization of transformer substations, the replacement of transformation links, the construction of new lines and the strengthening of the transmission capacity of some existing ones.
ČEPS operates in the Czech Republic as the exclusive transmission system operator on the basis of a license from the Energy Regulatory Office. It maintains, renews and operates 44 substations with 79 transformers and lines with a total length of almost 5,700 kilometers. One hundred percent of the company’s shares are owned through the State Department of Industry and Trade.
In the first half of this year, the company dealt with, among other things, fallen wires after the June tornado in the south of Moravia or the record load on the network caused by frost in mid-February. “All these events were successfully resolved by ČEPS in cooperation with partners and suppliers, without compromising the security and reliability of the transmission system,” said Martin Durčák, Chairman of the Board of ČEPS, today.
The company pointed out that, as a regulated entity, it can only achieve the level of profit set by regulatory parameters determined by the Energy Regulatory Office (ERO). Regulated parameters include permitted costs, depreciation and profit. If the achieved fact deviates from the set values in a given year, correction factors are determined, which will be included in the regulatory parameters in the following period. They thus affect the economic results of a company with a two-year shift.