Good progress with strategy and solid financial results

Solid financial results

• EBIT was €383 million (2024: €341 million), EBITDA was €791 million (2024: €724 million), with a profit after income tax of €271 million (2024: €245 million).

• Capital expenditure remained stable at €468 million (2024: €447 million). 

   

Strategy: areas of key progress

• Pleasing performances under the One Planet Plan: CO₂ emissions down to 9.4 Mton (2024: 9.7 Mton).
• Customer satisfaction up to 86.2% (2024: 85.5%), thanks in part to further improvements to customer service by telephone and over digital channels.

• Introduction of Eneco in Huis, entry onto the Polish market, and total battery capacity up to 1.2 Gigawatt.

   

 Strategy: the challenges

• The conflict in the Middle East caused volatility and uncertainty on the energy markets during the final months of the financial year.

• The energy transition is losing steam, and we will update our One Planet Plan to reflect this. 

   

Eneco had a good year, with satisfying financial results and good progress on carrying out our strategy, including the One Planet Plan.

Last week, Eneco announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Hekla Energy, a rapidly growing Polish trading company, giving us a foothold on the Polish energy markets. The agreement offers a platform to further expand our operations in one of Europe’s largest and fastest growing electricity markets.

Coming so late in the financial year, the crisis caused by the war in the Middle East and the closure of the Straight of Hormuz had little direct impact on the annual results. Eneco acted swiftly by adapting its procurements, and fixed contracts remained available for customers. Although prices have not increased much so far, this could change if the situation continues until the winter. With this in mind, we will continue our efforts to keep energy affordable and to make arrangements with the Dutch government and the sector about launching the public emergency fund as soon as possible to reduce energy poverty.

Operating results

Eneco wants to maximise the service and convenience it provides to customers. To make sustainable energy solutions as simple as possible, we brought all our installation, service and maintenance activities together in Eneco in Huis.

We made ongoing efforts and investments to provide customers with the best possible service across all channels, including the app, the website and telephone. This led to a higher customer satisfaction: 86.2% (2024: 85.5%).

Our consumer customers can use our Voordeelmomenten product to take advantage of moments when electricity is cheaper. We also offer HappyPower, which provides loyal customers with free electricity at a time of the day of their choosing.

With our partner Rabobank we launched Groengebouw, a proposition for the business market that offers a one-stop-shop for sustainability improvements to commercial premises. After acquiring Gulf Gas and Power, Eneco will also help some 30,000 customers in the SME sector with their sustainability improvements.

We made good progress on the markets for flex services as well. Besides continuing work on our Virtual Power Plant Myriad, earlier this month Eneco signed a contract with Belgian company Storm, which develops sustainable energy assets, to manage a total of 300 megawatts of batteries. This brings Eneco’s total flexible BESS (battery energy storage systems) capacity in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany to 1.2 GW. Eneco will control the batteries in response to market forecasts and developments.  

Onshore wind did not develop as hoped. However, the acquisition of Prowind offers prospects for further growth. The Dutch government, in part at Eneco’s urging, has made constructive improvements to incentivise the roll-out of offshore wind. Work is proceeding according to schedule on Ecowende, Eneco’s newest offshore wind farm that we are developing in partnership with Shell and Chubu. Shortly after the books were closed for the financial year, the foundations were completed and the first turbines were installed.

The heat market was turbulent, under pressure from developments relating to the new Dutch Heating Act. This legislation, which Parliament passed after years of intense debate and which is expected to come into full effect in 2027, includes a rule that heating grids must be majority publicly owned by the end of a transitional period. Eneco has started studying what the options are for the future of its heat business, including public-private partnerships.

In the meantime work continued on various heat projects. For example, 1300 homes are now connected to the new heating grid for Schiedam’s Groenoord district, and 1000 homes are connected in Bospolder-Tussendijken in Rotterdam.

One Planet Plan

We succeeded in further reducing our CO₂ emissions to 9.4 Mton (2024: 9.7 Mton), which is more than 43% less than for the base year of 2019. In addition, we have identified four projects to make a net positive biodiversity contribution.

The energy transition faces considerable challenges: besides sustainability, affordability and security of supply have also become more important. This calls for change, and we will update our One Planet Plan accordingly. Now more than ever it is vital for the public sector, the business sector and societal organisations to come together and accelerate this phase of the energy transition:

• incentivising and so increasing the demand for sustainable energy

• designing policies for easier investment in sustainable production and flexibility

• adding flexible capacity (including batteries) to reduce grid congestion

• encouraging households and industry to transition from gas to electricity

Eneco remains as committed as ever to leading the energy transition, and we expect to present the initial outline of the updates by the autumn of 2026.

Solid financial results

Despite these market conditions, our financial results were solid:                     

Revenues from energy and energy-related products and/or services were €6.6 billion, down €0.8 billion from the previous financial year. This drop was caused primarily by lower electricity prices across all our markets.

Profitability improved, driven chiefly by the strong contribution from the trading activities, favourable terms for procuring energy and an unremitting focus on cost control and operational efficiency. The return on average capital employed (ROACE) rose to 6.9%, boosted in part by a reduction in the amount held as working capital. This substantial increase (2024: 5.6%) is expected to be a one-off.

Eneco continued to make major investments in the energy transition. The total sum of €468 million includes capital expenditure on heating grids, sustainable installed capacity, innovation and digitalisation.