A clear result was achieved in the Spanish market, after more than 22,500 million were allocated to Spanish electricity investments in the last five years and an accounting loss of over 8,570 million was assumed for the depreciation of assets, primarily old coal power plants. , as collected Report by consulting firm Deloitte for the Naturgy Foundation Where major electricity groups control their economic and financial condition between 2017 and 2021.
Electric giants achieved last year Consolidated global net profit of 8,504 million euros, almost 28% more than the previous year and the highest figure in recent years. The companies concentrated 43% of their total profits on the Spanish market last year. Joint profit of EUR 3,616 million for its operations in Spain, 20% more than in the previous year and also the highest in five years (3,018 million in 2020; 2,201 million in 2019; only 53 million in 2018 and 2,968 million in 2017 due to historic losses after Naturgy amortized the value of its assets).
Depreciation of old plants
To justify the improvement in profits in the sector Spain in recent years, Deloitte said, “Since fiscal 2019, the net result for the year has increased mainly due to the evolution in the volume of asset impairment recorded annually.” companies doing depreciation of older generation facilities Adapt to the energy transition process – notably those of coal, but also gas and nuclear due to the expected total power outage – to adapt them to their expected returns and useful lives.
In 2021, the four major utilities recorded only €690 million of impairment in their accounts, compared to 1,591 million in 2020, 2,021 million in 2019 and a historic 4,530 million in 2018 when Naturgy halved the book value of all its non-renewable assets. Production facility with a serious reduction of 4,900 million. Total, In the last five years, accumulated depreciation for large groups in Spain has exceeded 8,570 million Euros over five years, Compared to the 2.224 million impairment applied in all remaining countries.
Parallel, Iberdrola, Endesa, Naturgy and EDP have invested 22,564 million euros in electricity assets since 2017.concentrates 41% of all investments worldwide.
new tax
In a full discussion about the extra benefits of energy companies and when The government is preparing a new tax to tax the possible extraordinary earnings of large companies in the middle of the price crisis 4,000 million targets The Deloitte report states that within two years from the electricity sector, the profits of its businesses in other countries should not be affected (4,888 million of the total 8,504 million) and that the Spanish corresponding part, the profits of Regulated businesses should also be exempt from the new tax (2,123 of the 3,616 million generated in Spain). million).
So it seems that there are extra profits from energy companies that only the government can detect. free market activities (production and supply) corresponding exclusively to the Spanish market: EUR 1,493 million last year, only one-sixth of the global profits of more than 8,500 million, and less than half of the total of 3,600 million earned in the Spanish market would have been exposed.
Electric companies have been denying the existence of millionaire profits The government says it wants to cut off all electricity generation because they are selling their electricity production upfront and at much lower prices than the electricity market sets, and therefore cannot benefit from the increases.