Key financial figures at EDPR remained largely flat year-on-year, according to first quarter results.
The Portuguese developer said earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation were up 1% to €385m, and revenue was down by the same order to €521m.
EDPR also booked a 35% dip in net profit for the first three months to €61m when compared with the corresponding period in 2018, however, this was blamed on wind conditions that were inferior to the year-ago period.
The company said figures were also hit by the discontinuation of a 10-year production tax credit in the US.
However, higher operating capacity, higher average selling prices and positive foreign exchange translations helped to mitigate the poor wind conditions and tax credit impacts, the company said.
Chief executive Joao Manso Neto said: “Our EBITDA remained solid despite the company’s first quarter performance being impacted YoY due to the comparison between significantly higher Q1 2018 wind resources and especially lower wind resources in Q1 2019, along with expected PTCs phase-out.
“In operating terms, the company has been delivering its growth objectives, considerably surpassing its targets.”
EDPR already has more than 40% of the 7GW build-out target capacity secured for 2019-22, which includes offshore and onshore wind and solar, as well as a wider geographical diversification, said Neto.
Other operating income amounted to €25m up on €13m YoY, reflecting mainly the additional gains from the December sale of an 80% stake in a 499MW portfolio in North America, which materialised in the Q1 2019.
As of 31 March 2019 EDPR managed a global portfolio of 11.7GW spread over 11 countries.
Over the last 12 months, EDPR’s portfolio increased by 703MW, namely 318MW in North America, 249MW in Europe and 137MW in Brazil.
In Q1 2019 EDPR built 62MW, all in Europe, including 47MW in Portugal and 15MW in France.
It also started the dismantling and repowering of a 24MW wind farm in the north of Spain. As of March 2019, EDPR had 684MW of new capacity under construction.