Nuclear output and price cap hits EDF Energy revenue

Big six supplier EDF Energy has posted a €76 million drop in revenue in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the same time last year.

Posting its Q1 results today (14 May) EDF said the 4.2 per cent decrease in organic terms was mainly due to the decline in nuclear generation, to a lesser extent the suspension of the capacity market and to the introduction of the default tariff cap.

Nuclear output amounted to 12.6TWh, down 2.5TWh from the first quarter of 2018 due to the Hunterston B inspection and to the extension of Dungeness B outage.

Posting a trading update yesterday British Gas owner Centrica also blamed reduced nuclear output as being likely to have an impact on its financial results.

The EDF Q1 report said supply activity benefited from the “good resilience” of its domestic customer portfolio, which is stabilising in a “very competitive” environment, and from increasing sales volumes in its business customer segment.

Overall the group’s Q1 sales amounted to almost €21 billion, up by 1.7 per cent compared to the same period last year.

A change, EDF says, mainly driven by its generation and supply activities segment in connection with “favourable market conditions, the growth of the group’s energy services activities and strong performance by EDF Trading” in France.

As well as EDF and British Gas, fellow big six suppliers Npower and Eon have also released their Q1 financial results.

Eon said its retail arm in the UK remains under “considerable pressure” owing to “keen competition” and the price cap on default tariffs.

The results for the three months to the end of March show a 6 per cent reduction in revenues when compared to the same period in 2018 to €2.24 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) fell more than a half from €148 million to €57 million.

Npower meanwhile blamed the price cap for its poor UK performance which saw reported losses before interest and tax of €45 million (£39 million).