The IEC completed the first quarter of 2020 with a net profit of NIS 1.2 billion

The IEC completed the first quarter of 2020 with a net profit of NIS 1.2 billion, according to the company's reports on Thursday. The IEC benefited from a series of one-off events that contributed to an increase in revenues or a reduction in expenses. With close to NIS 950 million, the company's net profit was around NIS 250 million, compared with a net profit of NIS 166 million in the first quarter of last year.
The company's revenues totaled NIS 6.35 billion, compared with total revenues of NIS 6 billion in the first quarter last year - an increase of 5%. Most of the increase is the payment of part of the Palestinian Authority's debt to the electricity company in the amount of NIS 570 million, which was offset by the fall in electricity rates (4.13% in January 2020), so that the net contribution to revenues amounted to an increase of about NIS 327 million. The company also recorded a decrease of NIS 347 million in electricity system operating expenses, which amounted to NIS 4.56 billion during the reporting period.
 Nearly half (49.7%) of electricity production in the first quarter was made using coal. In the corresponding quarter of 2019, natural gas was the dominant fuel, also due to the need to charge private power plants that use gas but were partially disabled. At the same time, the share of natural gas in electricity production dropped to about 45 percent (ten percent less than the first quarter of 2019), when liquid gas use also declined, and its share of fuel gas was only 4.7 percent (compared with about 5.6 percent in the corresponding quarter last year).
The corona crisis and the fall in energy prices in the world led to a reduction in fuel costs of the electricity company, which amounted to about NIS 1.67 billion in the quarter, a decrease of nearly 27%. This decline, as it continues, could lead to a fall in electricity rates in early 2021.
 The reform of the electricity company continued to contribute to the company in reducing retirement expenses and various annuity components amounting to NIS 275 million, so that the company's operating profit amounted to NIS 1.16 billion, a jump of 191%. Since the beginning of the reform, which has been eulogized several times in the past, some 870 employees have retired from the company, most of them first generation. This year, another 140 employees are expected to retire.
"The electricity company is undergoing a streamlining process and is implementing the reform in accordance with the schedule set by the state and even ahead of it," said Yiftah Ron-Tal, chairman of the electricity company. The Corona epidemic has found a financially stable company with the coping and execution capabilities that have allowed us to come in front of business owners and decline payments. "