Italian energy group Enel has published its 2018 operational results. The group generated 250 TWh in 2018 (+0.2% on 2017), of which 151 TWh from thermal and nuclear sources (-10%, due to a 8.7% decrease in coal-fired generation and a 14% drop in gas-fired generation). Renewable power generation surged to 99 TWh (+21%). More specifically, hydropower made the bulk of the renewable power production with 66 TWh (+19%), while wind power accounted for 22 TWh (+24%). Renewables accounted for almost 40% of the group's total power generation in 2018, an increase of almost 7 percentage points on 2017, while nuclear and thermal capacities accounted for 9.6% and 51%, respectively.
Enel's installed capacity increased by 0.8% in 2018 to 85,620 MW. The capacity addition (+2,682 MW) came exclusively from renewables: Enel added 1.4 GW of wind power during the year (up to 8.2 GW) and 1.2 GW of solar and other renewables (up to 2.4 GW). Renewables - including hydropower (27.8 GW) accounted for 46% of the group's total power generation capacity. More than half came from nuclear (3.3 GW) and thermal (17.2 GW of CCGT, 15.8 GW of coal and 10 GW of oil and gas).
As of 2018, most of Enel's capacity is located in Italy (27.6 GW, 53 TWh generated in 2018), Spain and Portugal (22.7 GW, 74 TWh), South America (21 GW, 68 TWh), the rest of Europe and North Africa (9.8 GW, 41 TWh), North and Central America (3.8 GW, 12 TWh) and Africa and Asia (695 MW, 1.5 TWh).
In 2018, the group's total retail energy sales amounted 295 TWh (+3.7%), of which 104 TWh in Italy (+1.1%, including 40 TWh on the regulated market and 64 TWh on the free market), 90 TWh in Iberia, and 91 TWh in South America. Its global power customer base reached 64.7 million (+11.5%), of which 25 million in Italy. It distributed 485 TWh (+5.4%) of electricity throughout the year to a total of 72.9 million (+11%) end-users, including 228 TWh (-0.4%) to 31.4 million customers in Italy. Enel sold 11.2 bcm (-4.9%) of gas to 5.7 million customers (+2.5%), including 4.8 bcm to 4.1 million Italian customers.