RWE posts 9% drop in 2011 electricity generation to 205.7 billion kWh

On gas-to-power generation, RWE said a gas-fired plant in the Netherlands operated at lower capacity utilisation and two gas-fired power plant units were out of operation in the U.K. while their transformers were being replaced by the manufacturer.

In the U.K., RWE npower's contribution to RWE Group's total electricity generation stood at 29.9 billion kWh in 2011, which was 13% lower than in the previous year. The operational start of the 1,728 MW gas-fired power plant at Staythorpe helped helped to boost output. However,two of the plant's four units had to be taken offline for several months because their transformers had to be replaced by the manufacturer, RWE said.

In Germany, the Biblis nuclear power station (2525 MW) was shut down as part of the moratorium on nuclear energy. "The German government's nuclear energy decisions alone had a negative impact on the result of well over €1 billion," RWE's chief executive Dr. Juergen Grossmann said. As a result of the German government's U-turn in energy policy following the reactor accident at Fukushima, neither of the Biblis units have been allowed to produce electricity since March 2011, he said.

The output of RWE's power generation portfolio was further reduced by a large hard coal unit undergoing a scheduled maintenance outage over a lengthy period in 2011. In the U.K. a major hard coal power station was taken off the grid for conversion to biomass, RWE said.

Electricity sales down 5% to 294.6 billion kWh

Sales of electricity produced also dropped as a consequence of RWE's lower output of electricity generation: Deliveries of electricity to external customers dropped 5% compared with 2010 figures to 294.6 billion kWh, RWE said.

Gas purchased from third parties declined by 19% to 322.2 billion kWh. The much milder weather conditions compared to the previous year led to a drop in demand for heating and there were competition-induced customer losses in the residential, commercial and industrial segments, the Essen-based company said.

RWE's sees 24% plunge in operating results

RWE today posted a 24% plunge in its operating result to €5.8 billion, while EBITDA dropped by 18% to €8.5 billion. These results are slightly ahead of RWE's forecast provided in August 2011, it said.

Putting a positive face on meagre results, RWE chief executive Dr. Juergen Grossmann said: "We have introduced the necessary measures to get us through the trough quickly".

"We will no longer receive any free CO2 allowances in 2013 and some earnings contributions will be lost as a result of the divestment programme. But we still expect to be on a par with the result of 2011 this year, too," he said.

For 2013 and 2014, RWE has set itself new cost reduction and efficiency enhancement targets, amounting to about €1 billion. Three quarters of the total should be achieved in 2013, RWE said.