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Essen (dpa) - An unexpectedly violent cold snap in the south of the USA has developed into a significantly larger problem for the energy company RWE than the global corona pandemic.
The financial consequences of the weather-related power outages in Texas cloud the last balance sheet presented on Tuesday by the outgoing RWE CEO Rolf Martin Schmitz.
The manager will hand over his position to the previous CFO Markus Krebber at the end of April.
Because the utility has to cope with losses of around 400 million euros in the US business, RWE will not be able to repeat last year's net profit of around 1.2 billion euros in 2021.
The adjusted net result will be between 750 million and 1.1 billion euros, said Krebber.
As a result of winter storms and freezing rain, RWE wind turbines in Texas temporarily failed in February.
RWE therefore had to buy in electricity at extremely high prices at short notice.
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Last year was “really excellent” for RWE, commented Schmitz on the business figures for 2020. Corona has “hardly hit the group economically at all”.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) were 3.2 billion euros in 2020.
The management had previously expected a maximum of 3 billion euros.
The group wants to increase the dividend in the current year because of the good financial situation: Shareholders are to receive 90 cents per share for 2021, 85 cents for the past year.
For the first time, the balance sheet shows the exchange of business areas with the long-standing competitor Eon.
RWE had taken over renewable energies from Eon and its daughter Innogy.
Eon received the network and customer business from Innogy.
“RWE has completely reinvented itself in just three years,” said Schmitz.
Last year, RWE shut down its last hard coal-fired power plants in Germany and Great Britain, and the first lignite block went offline as part of the German coal phase-out, the RWE boss emphasized.
At the same time, RWE has invested billions in the expansion of renewable energies.
This means that the group has come a big step closer to its goal of becoming climate neutral by 2040.
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With electricity from coal and nuclear power, RWE will "still earn good money" in 2021 and 2022, said CFO Krebber.
For the coming year, RWE expects an operating profit of 800 to 900 million euros in this area.
From 2023 onwards, it will look completely different because of the phase-out from nuclear energy and the shutdown of further lignite units.
The environmental organization Greenpeace, on the other hand, sees RWE as ill-prepared for the new energy markets.
"We are not taking the radical strategy shift from climate killer to eco-company from RWE," emphasized Greenpeace climate expert Karsten Smid.
The group delayed the reorientation towards renewable energies.
With rising CO2 prices, RWE threatens a cost explosion, according to a study published by Greenpeace.
RWE contradicted this: Electricity production was secured against rising CO2 prices until 2030.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210316-99-844056 / 2
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Documents of the RWE annual press conference
Greenpeace study on RWE