Vattenfall has reported its full year results from 2006, showing strong earnings for the full year, but a weak fourth quarter following forced outages at its Forsmark nuclear station in Sweden.
In the company’s Nordic operations, operating profit fell by 3.6%, mainly due to higher power generation taxes and a sharp reduction in nuclear and hydro power generation. Electricity generation decreased by 2.7% in 2006, to 164.5 TWh, compared with 169.1 TWh in 2005 with nuclear power generation decreasing by 6.3%, to 55.2 TWh compared with 205’s 58.9 TWh, mainly due to an incident at the Forsmark nuclear power plant in July 2006. Hydro power generation also decreased by 13.8%, to 34.3 TWh due to low water supplies.
Vattenfall showed improved underlying profit for the year with strong cash flow and lower debt, but substantial provisions and write-downs pushed profit for the year after tax down by 3.2%, to SEK 19,858 million ($2.87 billion) while operating profit for the fourth quarter decreased by 30% to SEK 5,258 million ($762 million).
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