Eesti Energia ended the year in profit despite uncompetitive oil shale electricity

Electricity sales, renewable energy production, network service provision and liquid fuels production delivered strong results for Eesti Energia last year. In 2024, the group’s normalised EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) totalled €400 million, while normalised net profit, excluding the impact of asset write-downs, reached €186 million.

According to Marlen Tamm, Member of the Management Board and CFO of the group, the profitability of nearly all business lines of Eesti Energia increased in 2024. The only exception is the declining business line of oil shale electricity production, the profitability of which has fallen sharply. ‘Renewable energy production, electricity sales, network service provision and liquid fuels production all contributed significantly to the group’s profit. However, oil shale-based electricity production, which is essential for ensuring security of supply, has lost its competitiveness in the market and is now generating losses,’ explained Tamm.

According to Tamm, half of the group’s nearly €1.8 billion in sales revenue came from electricity sales and renewable energy production, with almost 60% of the revenue generated outside Estonia.

In 2024, Eesti Energia produced a total of 3,791 GWh of electricity, which is 5% or 177 GWh more than the year before. Thanks to Enefit Green’s new production capacities, the renewable energy production of Eesti Energia increased by 35% compared to last year. ‘We are helping Estonia move towards achieving its renewable energy target by increasing renewable energy production in both Estonia and the wider Baltic Sea region. In 2024, renewable energy accounted for 56% of our electricity production, an 12-percentage-point increase from the previous year,’ added Tamm.

The largest contributors to the increase in clean, competitively priced electricity were Enefit Green’s Sopi-Tootsi wind farm (255 MW) in Estonia, the Akmenė wind farm (75 MW) in Lithuania and the Tolpanvaara wind farm (72 MW) in Finland.

Despite the high reliability of the Auvere power plant in 2024, the group’s non-renewable electricity production decreased by 18% due to its low competitiveness.

The group also made significant strides in developing the electric vehicle charging infrastructure. As a whole, by the end of the year, the number of Enefit charging stations more than doubled, reaching 575 chargers and 1,150 charging connectors across more than 300 locations in the Baltics and Poland. In 2024, Enefit launched its first public chargers in Latvia and Poland. The company also expanded and upgraded its existing charging network in Estonia and Lithuania.

In 2024, customers drove more than 13 million CO2-free kilometres using energy from the company’s charging network, avoiding more than 1,600 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

In 2024, a total of €722 million was invested, with more than half allocated to the development of renewable energy through the subsidiary Enefit Green and nearly over a fifth directed towards the development of network service via the distribution network operator Elektrilevi. ‘We are in the final stages of several investment projects and expect to start generating profits from these investments this year,’ added Tamm.

Compared to 2023, the volume of investments decreased by 7% or €57 million. The largest portion of the investments, ie €388 million, constituted investments of the group’s renewable energy company Enefit Green in the construction of new wind and solar parks. This included, for example, €229 million invested in the construction of the Sopi-Tootsi wind farm and €103 million in the construction of the Kelme wind farm.

The group’s network operator Elektrilevi invested €138 million in 2024 to improve the quality of the network service and develop connection opportunities for micro-producers.

Additionally, the group invested €78.4 million in the construction of the Enefit 280-2 oil plant, which serves as the foundation for building a sustainable chemical industry of the future.

The decline in oil shale electricity production and the resulting decrease in oil shale mining volumes led to an accounting write-down of the mines included in the group’s assets. Due to the extension of the construction period and the delay in the completion of the project, the oil plant under construction was also written down. ‘The production of liquid fuels remains a profitable business line, accounting for more than a quarter of the group’s EBITDA in 2024,’ emphasised Tamm. ‘At the same time, the plant will have less time to generate revenue than originally expected due to the delayed completion and regulatory deadlines. This resulted in the obligation to write down the accounting value of the plant,’ explained Tamm. As a result of asset write-down in the amount of €171 million, the normalised net profit of Eesti Energia for 2024 was €15 million.

In 2024, Eesti Energia paid a total of €92 million in taxes and environmental charges to the state. In addition, CO2 emission costs at market price amounted to €184 million.

*Normalised result that does not include the revaluation of derivatives