Enefit increases its client portfolio three times
Enefit, the second largest electricity trader in Latvia, increased its client portfolio three times in 2019 and reached a turnover of 58.06 million euros, thanks to a successful start in the household market. In total, transactions on the sales of 1017 GWh electricity and 330 GWh gas were concluded. Compared to 2018, the number of energy efficiency projects increased three times, thereby modernising the energy field of Latvian companies.
Turnover of the company remained almost unchanged, compared to 2018. As the clients mainly choose long-term fixed fee contracts and the electricity prices recovered from the rapid increase in the wholesale market, the cost of electricity supply exceeded the fee provided in contracts. Therefore, on an annual basis, the company incurred loss of 3 million euros ensuring long-term supply to clients. At the same time, the expansion of the company’s operational segment and development of energy efficiency service range allowed to increase the client portfolio by 317 % and close the year with 2,541 corporate clients and 5,647 household clients servicing them at approximately 25,000 connections points in Latvia. This has also allowed to increase the amount of transactions on electricity supply in next years that has already reached 1842 GWh.
“Our greatest achievement certainly was a successful start in a new segment, offering electricity to households: over a nine-month period we have attracted clients at 10,000 connection points which is a good result in a passive market where the interest to change electricity purchase habits is low and competition is high. Moreover, in the corporate client segment, the year was very productive, because, along with increased number of future contracts by one fifth, we have clearly marked the future path of Enefit towards a steady growth of electricity and gas client portfolio by at least 10 % in 2020, too,” explained Board Member of Enefit, Krists Mertens.
In 2019, the company focused on different technical solutions facilitating energy efficiency. Enefit implemented 51 projects in companies and households last year. The most popular solutions are related to installation of solar panels, LED lights and installation of reactive power compensation equipment. “Solar panel systems are in the development focus. Reduction of energy costs by developing more neutral CO2 solutions and micro generation or energy production for own use is a logical step. The amendments to the Electricity Market Law favourable to the households will strengthen a more rapid growth of this market segment. Moreover, we can see that companies expect new services from their energy trader to create added value to their businesses,” Mertens explained.
In 2020, Enefit will continue expanding the household client portfolio and development of energy efficiency solutions with a more rapid growth in the installation of solar energy systems. In an attempt to enter a new market segment of natural gas, Enefit plans to open the first local liquefied natural gas station.
Mertens says that global economy developments are the key challenges of 2020 in the energy industry which will have to be balanced with the local goals in this field: “Along with the common impact factors — resource prices in global market, weather conditions, inter-connection power and CO2 emission quotas — we are now facing the turbulence caused by COVID-19. This will mainly impact the demand for goods and services which will certainly have an effect on the demand for energy and market in general. At the same time, the implementation of the National Energy and climate plan has to start to ensure introduction of the ambitious goals in development of environmentally friendly energy resources and increased energy efficiency in the laws and regulations. The mandatory procurement component is still topical, however, from 2021 it should be deleted from invoices to reduce the total cost pressure on the electricity users. The outcome of interaction between all these factors is still unknown and the industry might face rapid fluctuations during the year.”
