The state-owned power board Hep reported on Monday a consolidated net loss of 1.1 billion (€146m) in the first six months of 2022, dramatically down from the nearly 1.3 billion kuna (€173million) profit in the same period in 2021, state agency Hina said, citing publicly available report published on the company's website.

Operating revenues reached 9.9 billion kuna, or 31.9 percent up from the first half of 2021, while expenditures increased by 89.4 percent to 11.4 billion kuna. This was attributed to “hydrological conditions” and “increased prices of imports of electricity, natural gas, and coal.”

Revenue from sales of electricity increased by 2.2 billion kuna or 36.1 percent year-on-year to reach 8.4 billion kuna. This was due to “increased consumption of energy by businesses, higher electricity prices, higher electricity prices for households, and a fee for the use of the transmission and distribution network as of 1 April 2022.”

Revenue from sales of heat energy rose by 300,000 kuna and of natural gas by 72.7 million kuna. “Other operating revenues” increased by 111.3 million kuna.

Electricity procurement costs reached nearly 3.9 billion kuna, up by 2.6 billion kuna or 206.2 percent compared with the first half of 2021, as prices of energy imports increased by 255 percent and mandatory purchases increased from 40 percent to 60 percent of the total government-subsidized electricity production.

Energy fuel costs amounted to nearly 2.5 billion kuna, increasing by 1.7 billion kuna or 235 percent as a result of higher prices and higher consumption of natural gas and coal. Costs of natural gas procurement for market supply went up by 229.7 percent to 348.2 million kuna due to “increased procurement and a higher average purchase price of gas.” The item vaguely described as “other operating expenditures” increased by 708.2 million kuna.

In the first six months of this year, total electricity consumption was 8,293 gigawatt-hours (GWh), which is 306 GWh or 3.8 percent more than in the same period of last year. Consumption of businesses increased by 299 GWh in the same period, and household consumption by 7 GWh.

The state-owned Hep Group controlled 91.8 percent of the domestic energy market, compared with 88.8 percent in the first half of 2021, the company said. Hep invested 1.01 billion kuna in the reconstruction and upgrade of the existing infrastructure, the construction of new infrastructure, and connecting new consumers to its grid.

Cash flow in this period was “satisfactory,” the company said, with “all obligations towards suppliers met according to schedule.”

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)