Eon’s profit in the first nine months of 2015 fell by 30% to €962m as the German utility company wrote down conventional power generation assets worth €8.3bn, mainly due to low prices for wholesale electricity.
The EBITDA of the Dusseldorf-based company fell by 18% to €5,4bn after hitting €6.5bn in 2014.
Eon has posted an EBITDA of €932m in its renewables division, down from €1,107m in 2014. The 219MW Humber Gateway offshore wind farm in the UK North Sea and the 288MW Amrumbank West project reached full commercial operation this year, with the latter being fully energised in the fourth quarter of the year.
In May the company announced its decision to move forward with Rampion, a 400MW project off the south coast of England. Investment in renewables reached €826m after €854m one year before.
“Our operating environment remains very difficult,” Eon chief financial officer Michael Sen said in the statement. “The impairment charges were triggered by the significant decline in commodity and energy prices, which is mainly a result of structural changes on global energy markets and on the regulatory framework.”
Eon is set to spin off its fossil-fuel plants into a separate company called Uniper at the turn of the year. Due to political pressure, Uniper won’t include Eon’s German nuclear plants as previously predicted.
Image: Rampion wind farm (Artist impression) (Eon)
