Half-yearly financial Report at June 30, 2013 - A2A

Half-yearly financial report at June 30, 2013Energy market trendsfelt especially in the north. The trend in demand in the second quarter was additionallypenalized by the average temperatures, which staying particularly low led to a delay in the useof air-conditioners, an important factor in the increase in the summer electricity load.Reduced domestic demand led to a decrease of 4.1% in the net production of electricity, whichtotaled 135,669 GWh, and a fall on the imports side, which caused a net drop with othercountries of 2.6% compared to the first six months of 2012. Net domestic production covered86.4% of demand, in line with the first half of 2012, while net imports satisfied the remaining13.6%.192The decrease in net domestic production was characterized by a sharp fall in thermoelectricproduction (-16.3% compared to the first half of 2012); a decisive fall in the load factor of gasand coal plants can be noted from working hours in the half year. The increased negative effectwas borne by combined cycle plants, compared to an increase in the proportion of renewablesources being used for the energy requirement, which rose from 11.5% to 14.2%, and ofhydroelectric production, which increased by almost 38% over the first half of 2012 due to theabundant rainfall during the period. The rise in production from wind farms continued, withgrowth of over 30% being achieved, a result obtained due to favorable weather conditions andthe increase in installed power, as did that from photovoltaic sources (+15% over the first halfof 2012).The weakness on the demand side for electricity in the first six months of the year hadconsiderable effects on IPEX prices. The average quotation of the PUN (Single NationwidePrice) Base Load for the period between January and June 2013 reached an average level of60.6 €/MWh, representing a decrease of 21.8% over the figure for the same period of theprevious year (77.5 €/MWh). The price of electricity fell both in peak hours (-23% for the PUNin the F1 band and for the PUN Peak Load) and in off-peak hours (-20% for the PUN in the F2band), which made it difficult for operators to recover their variable costs also in theevening/night-time hours (photovoltaic plants with dispatch priority remain switched off dueto the lower level of solar radiation).The above changes therefore affected the performance of the spark spread which wasconsiderably lower in the half year in question compared to the same period in 2012.