Ørsted’s H1 2024: Strong Offshore Wind Earnings Amid Strategic Shifts and Project Delays

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Ørsted’s Board of Directors approved the interim report for the first half year of 2024.

Mads Nipper, Group President and CEO of Ørsted, said in a comment to the interim report for the first half of 2024: “I am pleased with our results. Ørsted’s operations are performing well, and particularly the earnings from our offshore wind farms, and thus our core business, have increased. Therefore, we maintain our EBITDA guidance for the full year, and we increase our earnings expectations for our offshore wind business.

“In the first half of the year, we have executed the updated business plan that we presented in February, and we have put almost 2 GW of renewable energy capacity into operation, providing renewable energy to more than 1.5 million households across three continents. This is a significant contribution to Ørsted’s long-term renewable capacity goals.

“Despite encouraging progress on our US offshore wind project Revolution Wind, the construction of the onshore substation for the project has been delayed. This means that we have pushed the commercial operation date from 2025 into 2026, which led to an impairment. This is, of course, unsatisfactory, and we continue our dedicated efforts to de-risk our portfolio.

“The liquid e-fuel market in Europe is developing slower than expected, and we have taken the strategic decision to de-prioritise our efforts within the market and cease the development of FlagshipONE. We will continue our focus and development efforts within renewable hydrogen, which is essential for decarbonising key industries in Europe and closer to our core business.

“We maintain a strong focus on de-risking project execution and prioritising growth options with the highest potential for value creation.”

Guidance

Ørsted maintains its full-year EBITDA guidance of DKK 23–26 billion, excluding earnings from new partnerships and the impact of cancellation fees. However, the company has increased the directional guidance offshore and decreased the directional guidance in bioenergy & others.

Ørsted has lowered the gross investment guidance by DKK 4 billion to DKK 44–48 billion due to timing effects across its project portfolio.

Results for H1 2024

Operating profit (EBITDA) for the first half of the year amounted to DKK 14.1 billion compared to DKK 10.2 billion in the same period last year, of which DKK 1.3 billion was related to a net reversal of provisions for cancelled projects. EBITDA excluding new partnerships and cancellation fees in H1 2024 amounted to DKK 12.8 billion, which is an underlying increase of 25 % compared to last year.

Earnings from the offshore sites amounted to DKK 11.3 billion, which was an increase of DKK 2.3 billion compared to the same period last year. The increase was driven by the ramp-up of generation at the offshore wind farms, Greater Changhua 1 and 2a, South Fork, and Gode Wind 3, higher wind speeds, higher prices on the inflation-indexed CfDs, and green certificates.

Impairment losses had a negative effect in H1 2024 of DKK -3.2 billion, mainly driven by the decision to cease execution of FlagshipONE (DKK -1.5 billion), a construction delay related to the onshore substation for Revolution Wind (DKK -2.1 billion), an update of the fair value measurement related to the Ocean Wind seabeds (DKK -0.6 billion), and an increase in the US long-dated interest rate (DKK -1.0 billion across the US portfolio). In contrast, the company have reversed earlier booked impairment losses on Sunrise Wind, due to it being selected to negotiate an OREC agreement by the state of New York (DKK 1.8 billion).

Return on capital employed (ROCE) came in at -12.4 %, primarily due to the impairment losses and cancellation fees impacting EBIT during the 12-month period. ROCE adjusted for impairment losses and cancellation fees in H1 2024 was 13.1 %.