October 2 (SeeNews) - Croatian state-owned power utility Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP) said its consolidated net profit decreased to 859.3 million kuna ($126.5 million/115.9 million euro) in the first half of 2019 from 1.2 billion kuna in the like period of last year, as costs rose faster than revenue.
Operating income went up 3.6% on the year to 7.845 billion kuna in the review period, while operating costs increased 10% to 6.812 billion kuna, HEP said in an interim financial statement published on its website.
HEP's hydro power plants produced 2,929 GWh of electricity in the first six months of 2019, down 33.8%, due to unfavourable weather conditions in the review period. The production of thermal power, however, rose by 23% to 1,659 GWh, HEP said.
A total of 1,504 GWh of electricity was provided by the Krsko nuclear power plant in Slovenia, which represents 14.5% of the electricity made available to HEP.
HEP invested 868.3 million kuna in the review period, including replacement, reconstruction, rehabilitation of existing power facilities, construction and preparation for construction of new power facilities and for customer connections.
The HEP group owns and operates over 4,000 MW of installed generation capacities and 974 MW of heat production capacities, including 25 hydro power plants and eight thermal power plants fired by oil, natural gas or coal.
(1 euro = 7.41495 kuna)
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