In March, Enefit Green produced 233.6 GWh or 60.4% more electricity than in the same period last year. In Q1 as a whole, Enefit Green's electricity production increased by 24.8% to 616.9 GWh, mainly due to the addition of new wind and solar farms to the portfolio.
March production result was mainly driven by 61% y-o-y increase in the volume of wind energy production (207.8 GWh). A significant contribution to the growth was provided by two new wind farms -Sopi-Tootsi wind farm in Estonia (59.9 GWh) and Kelme I in Lithuania (20.9 GWh).
Unlike in February, which was characterized by very calm weather, average wind speeds in March were noticeably better in Estonia and Finland (6.4 and 7.7 m/s, respectively, compared to 5.6 and 6.7 m/s last year) and broadly similar to last year's levels in Lithuania (6.8 m/s, 6.7 m/s last year). Portfolio-wide average wind speed was 6.7 m/s in March, with a +3.3 GWh impact on production.
Q1 as a whole was relatively calm due to February - the average wind speed in Estonia was 6.2 (-0.2 compared to last year) m/s and in Lithuania 6.6 (-0.8) m/s, which had a -57.4 GWh impact on production. In Tolpanvaara (Finland), the wind conditions were better - the average wind speed was 7.7 (+0.3) m/s - but curtailments caused by excessively low market prices resulted in a production decrease compared to last year's results. The overall impact of wind conditions on the production in the first quarter was -56.1 GWh. The availability impact of wind farms on Q1 production volumes was -10.8 GWh. System services and price related curtailments had -69.6 GWh impact on the production volumes.
Solar energy production increased by 158% y-o-y to 14 GWh in March and by 137% to 20 GWh in the first quarter as a whole. The growth is driven by increased installed capacity and the addition of new solar farms to the portfolio (the most important of which is the Sopi 74 MW solar park, which produced nearly 6 GWh in March).
March electricity and heat production of the Iru cogeneration plant increased by 8.8% and 6.6% y-o-y to 11.6 and 36.1 GWh, respectively. In Q1 as a whole, the production of electricity and heat in the combined heat and power segment decreased by 6% and 18.8% to 32.0 and 104.8 GWh, respectively. The first quarter of this year is the last period during which the y-o-y change of production levels is mainly driven by the sale of biomass assets completed in February last year.
Innar Kaasik, Member of the Management Board and COO of Enefit Green, comments Q1 production results: " The production result of the first quarter was largely driven by the exceptionally calm February, which was not compensated by the better wind conditions in January and March. In Lithuania and Finland, icing of wind turbine blades caused negative effects on availability as did anti-icing system repair works carried out in Tolpanvaara."
