Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the A2A 2026 Q1 results presentation conference call. My name is Zach, and I will be your operator for today's event. Please note, this conference is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only mode. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. This can be done by pressing pound key five on your telephone keypad. I will now hand you over to your host, Marco Porro, Head of Investor Relations, to begin the conference. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone, thank you for joining for the first quarter 2026 results. Today the results will be illustrated by our CEO, Mr. Renato Mazzoncini, and the CFO, Luca Moroni. I will immediately yield the floor to Renato.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. I start with the statement Alfred North Whitehead once said that the art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order. Let's say in the last three months, we have seen a lot of changing inside the energy landscape in Italy and in Europe. Let me start with a brief overview of the macro scenario and how we are responding to preserve both order and change in our mission to be ready to power. In Q1 was marked by a certainty and super high volatility in the energy market, fueled principally by two external factors.
The first is the proposed measures in Italy and in Europe to mitigate the impact of rising energy costs and industrial competitiveness. In Italy is also said the decree for Decreto Bollette, the decree for the tariff. After a couple of days, the geopolitical tension in the Middle East in Iran. What happened in the slide number two is that, for example, the PSV gas price peaked at around the EUR 6 per MWh , while the PUN spot price ranged around EUR 80-EUR 170 per MWh amid continued moves in the forward curves. Visibility is still limited, but conditions are well below the 22 extremes.
You can see in the graph at slide two, in the left part of the slide. Against this backdrop, our action are geared to support short-term system stability and to deliver on the targets we have communicated to shareholders. Our first step was to give customers, especially households, greater stability by maintaining our fixed price contract offers. This now account for around half of our mass market exposure. Consider that 50% of our customer base mass market is in fixed price. Our 26 renewable generation, in line with our policy, is already hedged for more than 70%, giving us full visibility for this year. We will continue to closely monitor developments and to respond as necessary, navigating an environment that remains highly fluid. That's the short-term picture.
As you know, A2A's vision is built on long-term resilience, and this commitment remains unchanged. Let me say that exactly in this situation, to have a 10 years industrial plan, is fantastic because in this situation, the short term is a problem to face, but is not, let's say, the polar star. The contingent, the contingent geopolitical phenomena of today only serve to underscore the long-term importance of Italy's energy independence. For this reason, the expansion of our renewable and high-efficiency flexible capacity remains a key driver. For example, during the quarter, we commissioned the Terzo Ribansi plant, adding around 30 MW of wind capacity in southern Italy.
We reiterated our investment strategy, almost half of the quarter spending direct towards generation plants and in our power grid that remain the backbone of the energy transition. Electrification of consumption remains a sector trend underpinning our capital allocation choices and is super interesting, the fact that in Italy the demand was up to 3% in Q1. You know that there is sometimes a discussion if really the demand will grow. We can say that in this Q1 there is a visible growth of the demand, especially in Lombardy, in which the growth arrives in double digit, 10%. This is encouraging, an encouraging signal, of course.
Equally encouraging is the fact that data centers will continue to emerge as a new high consumption customer segment. We see confirmation of this in the fact that the connection request in our electricity distribution network, in particular in the province of Milan, in particular Duereti, that is the company, you know, that we bought two years ago from Enel, now amount around 330 MW. Consider that is a medium voltage, let's say not more than 10 MW. That means 33 new data center at least that ask for new connection only around Milan. Despite ongoing volatility, I can confirm that our resilient business model, diversification and the long-term perspective, supported by strong execution, enable us to maintain our investment commitments.
Let me give you a few highlights, looking at slide number three, in which you can see our numbers, our economics. Also we see both positive and downward variance in these figures. Taken together, we underscore the two crucial factors: our financial resilience and our commitment on targeted investments. I think the most evident metric of this is our net financial position, which remains sound and under control. At EUR 5.6 billion versus EUR 5.5 billion at year end 2025, the movement is entirely consistent with the typical business seasonality. The leverage ratio holds at 2.5, broadly stable year-over-year, confirming the group financial discipline and balance sheet resilience, even in a quarter of active capital deployment.
The figures confirm our resilience, which is far confirmed by our continued commitment to targeted investment. In slide number four, we continue in our CapEx plan deployment, confirming our commitment on our long-term strategy vision. You can see 4% more of CapEx compared with last year. What is super important is that in Q1, we have 21% of growth in the development CapEx. EUR 210 million refers to development project. The key pillars of our investment strategy are improving the efficiency of power distribution networks, accelerating our development path towards renewable energy, increasing the flexibility of generation plans and, of course, the CapEx in circular economy that I remember is also district heating and water cycle.
That's the big picture. Let me turn to Luca for a more detailed analysis of the results. Please, Luca.
Thank you, Renato. Thank you, everybody, and good afternoon. As Renato pointed out, the beginning of 2026 presented a challenging conversion of contingent external factors. As unpack our EBITDA performance, I wish to emphasize how we respond to this. I think this slide is a clear summary of how a diversified and integrated portfolio of activities underpins our ability to optimize our risk profile. By leveraging the diversification of our business, we were able to face negative effects, including some unpredictable costs, delivering an EBITDA of EUR 647 million. In particular, this reflects our higher renewable energy production, the ability to capture trading opportunities and the strong performance in market and electricity distribution business mitigated the adverse impact from higher electric concession fees, lower achieved price and lower contribution from [treated] plants.
Naturally, this performance start without we generate optimized energy, so let me turn to generation and trading. In generation and trading, increased production during the quarter helped offset the impact of adverse headwinds. EBITDA was EUR 202 million, a decrease of EUR 22 million compared to Q1 2025. Starting with renewables, we delivered higher renewable production. This positive contribution was impacted by two contingent factor beyond our control. Higher hydroelectric concession fees, which affected by EUR 11 million. Of which EUR 6 million are related to previous years and lower achieved price based on the scenario. Moving to flexibility, a good performance in trading confirm our ability to capture market opportunities. This was partially undermined by fewer chance in gas portfolio management.
To sum up, our operational performance remains solid with our production volume and effective trading execution in face of market condition and regulated cost component that represent a headwind in the quarter. Overall, this confirm both the resilience of our integrated model and the importance of diversification across generation and trading activities to take volatility. Of course, generation energy is only half of the equation. The real impact happen when we connect it to customers. Let me turn to the encouraging results that emerge in Q1 for supply business. Looking at the market segment, the first quarter confirmed the persistence of our commercial performance. EBITDA was EUR 136 million, with an increase of EUR 3 million compared to Q1 2025. In market, our performance was primarily supported by the growth in electricity volumes, particularly in the free market segment.
At the same time, profitability was partially impacted by lower unitary margins, reflecting a more competitive environment on pricing dynamics. Overall, the quarter was marked by solid volume-driven growth, with margin pressure partially offset by the underlying strength of the business. Of course, the future of the energy isn't just about consumption, it is also about circularity. Let me turn to the performance of the circular economy. In the circular economy, the quarter shows a performance affected by a lower margin in treatment segment in particular. Adjusted EBITDA was EUR 190 million, a decrease of EUR 12 million compared to Q1 2025. The pressure on margin in treatment was mainly due to the new Acerra service contract signed in February 2025, and the lower availability of Parona and Trezzo plant for maintenance activities.
Prices showed a slight increase. We also saw positive contribution from district heating, in particular related to white certificates sold and higher allowed returns from the integrated water cycle. Overall, performance was slightly softer, mainly due to operational and contractual factors in waste-to-energy, with some support from positive trend in other activities. That said, let me turn to smart infrastructure. In smart infrastructure, the overall performance reflect growth in load revenues, partially offset by a change in the gas distribution perimeter, as you remember. The EBITDA on the business unit was EUR 129 million, an increase of 6% on the Q1 2025. In electricity network, EBITDA took advantage from higher load revenues, driven by the new ROSS tariff methodology and the continued growth in the RAB driven by CapEx development.
In gas network, we saw a negative contribution, mainly due to the perimeter effect following the asset disposal completed in July 2025. Give a look at the profit and loss, starting from adjusted EBITDA, EUR 647 million. We recorded EUR 250 million of G&A, EUR 12 million plus compared the same period of 2025. The increase is mainly due to the higher CapEx deployed. Provision and net financial expenses were equal to EUR 25 million and EUR 41 million respectively, in line with the same period of 2025. Adjusted taxes amount to EUR 98 million, a decrease of EUR 10 million compared to 2025, driven by lower taxable base. The tax rate stood at 29.5%, excluding the impact of the IRAP increase introduced energy decree , accounting for as a special item, as we said already.
Adjusted group net profit was EUR 221 million, a decrease of 11% compared to 2025 at EUR 249 million. Finally, in Q1, we achieved a solid ROI and ROE above 9% and 10% respectively. Well aligned with our target. Let me conclude my comments giving you an overview on the net net free cash flows. Cash flows Q1 2026 show the negative change in net financial position of EUR 154 million as a result of business seasonality. As of March 31, the group reported a net financial position of EUR 5.628 billion, with a leverage ratio of 2.5x , ensuring the full stability of the leverage position.
During the period, the operating cash flow generated EUR 149 million. Let me give you an explanation, in which way. Net working capital variation was EUR -460 million. Primarily driven by the increase of trade receivable due to the business seasonality and the energy prices increase starting from March 2026 following the escalation of the conflict in Iran. Payment of net financial expenses, EUR 38 million. Operating cash flow spend at EUR 149 million. Accounting CapEx, EUR 315 million. The net free cash flow amounts at EUR -166 million . The change in the consolidation perimeter during the period was positive and amounted to EUR 22 million, mainly due to the price adjustment, EUR 25 million, related to the sale of the part of the gas asset to Ascopiave in 2025.
Partially offset by EUR 3 million in other transactions. Overall, considering EUR 10 million spent on the share buyback, the total change in the net financial position amounts to EUR 154 million. To conclude my comments, our businesses are not separate stories, but rather one integrated system that ensure our financial results. Results that show how by leveraging the resilience and diversification of business, we were able to navigate the challenges of geopolitical effects, including the ones that nobody saw coming, and to deliver an EBITDA of EUR 647 million. Let me now hand back to Renato for the final part of the presentation.
Okay. Thank you, Luca. To close, guys, slide number 12, we confirm our 2026 guidance. You know. Slide number 13, only some concept about our robust industrial execution. Let me now briefly really focus on the key highlights supporting our performance and outlook. Starting with execution. Year to date, we have seen solid operational trends across our core businesses. In renewable, hydro production benefits from the geographical diversification across Italy. Is interesting the fact that this year is Calabria, the first class of our hydro production. More and more is difficult to have all the plants from the south to the north, northeast, northwest at the same level of production.
To have diversification like it were in Lombardy, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in Calabria is super nice because is easier to maintain our target. On the commercial side, electricity volumes recorded double-digit growth. In particular, free mass market customer base continued to expand. Starting from Q2, we are seeing early signs of improving churn rate dynamics. You can imagine is of course also linked to the exceptional growth PUN. The typical situation in this case is that the churn fall down and our visibility in June is a reduction of the churn super strong. What is important for us is that you remember our strategy is to increase the market share of electricity customer and our strategy is on track.
Our power grid activities delivered a sound performance supported by ongoing CapEx deployment. As I said, in our last call, in particular, Duereti, the company that we bought from Enel, is working very well in terms of CapEx deployment, and also EBITDA. At the same time, we continue to deliver on our strategic projects. In power generation, we are progressing in Monfalcone, the new Class H thermal plant. Corteolona is a new waste to energy plant. A2A remain the only company in the last years that is working to build new waste to energy plant. Further renewable development. We have also identified brownfield sites for our data center platform. In data center, we are working quickly.
You remember we have three projects on track, and we are working to be able to start with some site next year. All suitable for behind the meter connection, enabling fast grid access and competitive energy cost, as you know. Finally, our electricity distribution business is well on track or to reach the 28 RAB target that is high. Overall, this confirms our ability to execute consistently across all businesses while continuing to invest where it matters most in order to generate a sustainable value. In the last slide, number 14, only to say that, let's see the architecture that support our strategy over time. First, a diversified and integrated portfolio of activities, enabling us to optimize our risk profile.
You know, all our natural hedging in generation, in collection and treatment, in regulated business and business on the market. Exactly the exposure to regulated businesses, providing stability and clearly visibility on cash generation. Our discipline in capital allocation to unlock new growth opportunities. I began today by underpinning our commitment to preserve the delicate balance between order and change. To do so, our takeaway today is, we will continue to invest where it matters most while maintaining financial resilience and control, turning the megatrend that are reshaping the energy landscape into sustainable result over time and are reshaping the role of the multi-utility company in this new landscape.
Thank you very much. I ensure that there is space and interest for Q&A. The floor is yours. Thanks.
Thank you very much. The first question comes from the line of Emanuele Oggioni of Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, thank you for the presentation and for taking my question as well. The first one is on the 2026 guidance. To what extent, you know, what is the visibility, considering that, if I remember well, your guidance is not included, the change of the scenario for the short term at least. Apart Q1, but starting from Q2, indeed starting from March, the we'll say price will be higher year on year, at least for Q2 than we see in H2.
For this 30% roughly merchant exposure, for the expected volume from [Hyzon] waste-to-energy in 2026, we should expect a benefit, you know, from this situation, which is not included in the guidance. My question is about the outlook for the next three quarters, with an update of the, you know, the guidance compared with the updated macro scenario. This is the first question. The second one is still on the generation business and the market design, but in this case more in 2027 onwards.
We know that the Italian government is under discussion with European Commission to define a new market design and the coupling of the power price from gas, you know, the renewables from gas, will be through ETS chain or will be through other component of the price of the gas, et cetera. We'll see. In any case, it's under study. That is what is your update and your opinion on this, on this situation. Finally, in the market supply, I saw a good resiliency in the profitability in spite of slightly down number in customer, but indeed it was related only to STG and the protected market.
Note that the free market experienced a slight increase, the commercial policy seem to be effective at least in Q1. What is the update about the competitive pressure and your commercial strategy in this respect? Also considering that it seems that there are also portfolio, at least according to the Italian press, there are also a portfolio of customers to be sold in the market, you know, if you are interested in that. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Emanuele. Well, on question number one, I say, you know, we are hedged for 2026. It's clear that, and consider that in this moment our hedge, as I said, is more or less 70%. That means that, yes, if the war remain till the end of 2026, and I think that all of us hope that in Iran something can change in the next weeks. I don't know, but we have to see. We can, we can have an upside that is limited due to our edging. This is for the first question. For the second, talking about ETS. Talking about ETS, I can answer using the communication from the commission about the temporary Iran crisis energy framework, 23 of April. Okay?
Let's say is that member states can also consider transitory measures to mitigate the impact of high gas prices on electricity generation. Let's say, not only limited only to 2026, and you consider that the formula linked to the ETS proposed by our government, we start from 2027, and this is enough to say that is impossible to. Okay. It's also interesting that the European Commission understood perfectly the risk and says that there are some conditions. The first is that the transitory measures, they are clearly defined and time-limited, so not structural. The second, they are designed to prevent internal market distortion, ensuring no impact on the merit order and no restrictions to cross-border trade and electricity flow. The third, they preserve long-term investment signals for clean energy.
The fourth, they only compensate certain gas cost increase and do not cover ETS cost, therefore maintaining the obligation and the incentives of ETS. Okay, without reading more, I can say that we imagine that is impossible to have structural changes. Also due to the roadmap 2026, 2027, we don't think that the decree, the Italian decree can have effect and that can change the position of EU. That is very clear. Also because, frankly speaking, Italy is the only industrial country in which ETS is really a tax because it is the only country in which EUR 2.9 billion or EUR 3.5 billion is really used to serve the public debt.
In all the other countries, starting from Germany or France, 100% of ETS is a cap and trade system, there are companies, corporate, that receive money from ETS. This is the easy reason for why this country says, "No, thanks. We don't want to change the ETS." Talking about mass market, your analysis is correct. For us in this moment, it is clear that the good news is that we have 1% of increasing of the free mass market electrical in a phase in which the churn in the first quarter was high in all the market, and in a situation in which our visibility of the churn in the second half of the year is much lower. We imagine to be able to reach our budget.
That is a budget in which the customer base electricity free market will grow. The pressure, the competitiveness pressure is a reality, and this is reason for why since the first industrial plan, every year we imagine to have a reduction of marginality of 3%. No, you remember is a discussion that we'll.
Yeah.
we did a lot of times. Till now, frankly speaking, a reduction of marginality is not on the table. In our industrial plan, including 2026 and 2027, we forecast a reduction, and we see, let's say. In this moment, we are happy to have, in particular, some interesting products. For example, the PPA mass market for our customer. The customer base for PPAs mass market in this moment is more than 100,000, so 110,000, 120,000. To understand how is important, in this moment, the total energy sold in PPA mass market is slightly higher than the PPA B2B. Is the proof that working in the customer base, also out of the box with instruments like PPAs mass market 10 years long is a good idea and works well.
Thank you. Just a follow-up on the first question. The first question was not only on generation and spot power price compared with the embedding the guidance, but also the other moving parts in H2 or for Q2 onwards compared with the expectation of the business.
Yeah, yeah.
As you remember when you provided the guidance for the first time. Thank you.
Yeah, Emanuele, I will take the lead to answer to your question. We see generation more or less in line with the previous year result. Take into consideration maybe some opportunities we can get in the market.
As you correctly pointed out, the spot price could give us some opportunities. Let's see, around EUR 700 million is more or less the area we are targeting. Market supply business is slightly behind in our projection by now, compare last year, but slightly I mean, a few millions. That means that there is still a good visibility, high resilience on the marginality which stay there, but also on the volumes we are able to sell, which are growing and giving us opportunity to expand also the market share.
[Circular] economy, is pretty stable, due to the fact that, we have incorporated some maintenance works already in the first quarter. They were planned, so the target incorporated this maintenance. You have to consider that these plants are working with full capacity. From time to time, they need to have maintenance activities. Finally, smart infrastructure, again, more or less in line with last year, considering that in the EUR 518 million of the last year, we had EUR 22 million related to Ascopiave deal on the gas network, and some one-offs that are not recurring.
We have, we decided last year to consider this non-recurring industrial, non-recurring item embedded in our results. All in all, we are in line with the guidance we gave at the beginning of the year, and we have nice visibility by now. Let's see what happen in the next quarter, and we can have an update at the half year.
Thank you very much.
Yeah. Maybe just to give you also a flavor on the fees asked by the region Lombardy. We have an impact in the area of EUR 40 million-EUR 50 million. Half of those are related to previous years, meaning 2021-2024 years. These are, as I said, they're non-recurring, even though we consider that amount in the guide and in our expectation. On the remaining part, the half, again, has been already provided in the previous year, so it is not an impact. It has not an impact on the net profit, but only on the EBITDA. Already consider in what I already said.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Javier Suárez of Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone, and thank you for the presentation. Three questions. The first one is on the generation on business and electricity prices. If you can share with us the level, the pricing level for your hedging in 2026 and eventually 2027 as well. I'm interested in the absolute level of electricity pricing hedging. Also your latest expectations for electricity prices towards the end of the decade and beyond or in a context on which there is a high level of concern on high electricity prices impacting competitiveness of Europe. Which are your latest thought on potential impact of an electricity prices in Italy? That would be the first question.
The second question is on the comment that you make on electricity demand increase during the first quarter. That is quite remarkable. If you can help us to understand in your area, in your region, in the regions in which you operate, which are the key dynamics that are underpinning this increase in electricity demand and maybe splitting that increase in electricity demand by different, by the different segments. In this context, when the company thinks that we'll be able to update the market with latest update on potential development of new data centers in Northern Italy. The final question is more of a general one.
There has been a press articles mentioning the potential interest of the company in an M&A activity, being involved in M&A activity without entering in names and second names. Just as a general concept, the question for you is which would be the identity of a potential M&A target that could the company management press a button on that deal? Thank you.
Okay, Javier. I, talking about generation price, your question is, the level of price of our hedging 2026 and 2027. Correct?
Okay, okay. Okay, yeah. For 2026, in this moment we have, as I said, 70%, 72%, and the level is 111. Is absolutely nice, slightly higher than our budget. Talking about 2026, 2027 is around 60%, and is a little bit higher than 100. Also in this case, we are in a space in which we are online with our industrial plan. In this moment, there is few liquidity to cover more 2027, but let's say 60% in May, 2026 is a good level of hedging.
The demand is interesting because it's clear that in this moment, for the sides, data centers surely have the key elements to increase the demand. Because like if you consider that a full cities like let's say Cremona, as a peak power of 100 MW and is not base load like consumption, it's clear that is enough to have a new data center of 30 MW to have an increasing of demand more or less similar to a whole cities like Cremona. In this moment, what is happening is that the data center are growing. There are new data center, not really super big, till now in Lombardy, but are growing.
Surely, the increasing of demand is mainly linked to artificial intelligence and all the digitalization. Also talking about e-mobility, something is happening in particular due to the high reduction of prices of the electrical vehicle due to the competition with in particular, BYD, Leapmotor and others, because the price fall down. A good example is the price of the segment city car of Renault, for example, the starting from the Renault Zoe to the new Renault 5 E-Tech set the price 30% lower. What is happening is that really also the e-mobility is growing.
The last, but not least is that looking at the gas distribution year by year there are 1%, between 1% and 2%, depending where of reduction of the PDR and of course are people that deciding to electrify something. That means cooking, heat pumps or others. So is normally to see this increasing of demand. Why so concentrated in Lombardy? See, I think because Lombardy is every times the local of Italy so all the new trend start typically from Lombardy talking about the economy and grow. That's all. To close with M&A, let's say, you know, that we can't say nothing about these topics.
We do full disclosure through the exactly through the media of what is correct to say to the shareholders. For example, the last news about our non-binding for the plans of biogas is correct, is true. Of course, we are a players in this sector, and we are interested to see the number, to have more information about the business because it's useful also for us to define our strategy, let's say. I have not more information, Javier, to share.
Okay. On the question on the timing for latest views on timing for a final, or the announcement of an agreement with a data center development?
This is correct. In this moment, you remember that during our presentation, we put on the slides three projects. In this moment, we can say that one project is in Brescia. one project is in Cassano d'Adda, so near our super big thermal plant. The third is under definition. Is ongoing, let's say. We are working for authorization, of course, consider that it's also interesting that both the national law and the regional law put some conditions to have acceleration in authorization. The condition are or easy for us to face because it's a greenfield. Sorry, brownfield and not greenfield.
Is to reduce the impact on the power grid, so perfect behind the meter connection with the district heating, and you know we are the sole operator able to do this. With a good mix of renewable, and sorry, a mix of decarbonized electricity and water cycle efficiency. The reason why A2A is a good player in data center is exactly because we are able to move all these parts and so to move quickly in the authorization, because we are exactly full committed in these elements.
We are working for authorization, and our goal can be to start the first plant, the construction of the first plant next year. The to be able to see the first EBITDA at the end of 2028.
Interesting. Many thanks.
All right. The next question comes from the line of Francesco Sala of Banca Akros. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my question. The first one is, if you can give us an update on the concessional renewals, especially in Lombardy. The second one, if you can give us the quantify the impact of the new Acerra service contract, both for the full year, because there was an impact in Q1. If we can have an estimate for the full year. On the retail business, I wonder what what is what your commercial strategy is now in terms of fixed price versus variable price contracts, and whether there has been a change in the market or at least in your approach in the last few months.
Secondly, finally, as regards thermal generation and more in general, your electricity volumes that went up a lot in Q1, whether this is related to strong demand in Lombardy or whether there are other drivers behind this increase. Thank you.
Okay. For the hydro concession, the situation is more or less the same that you know. We are waiting to open the discussion for the fourth, third way, you know, the Lombardy model, let's say. Frankly speaking, I imagine that is much easier to open the discussion in the second part of this year after the closing of the PNRR. You can understand that without the vincula from the PNRR is much easier. Also, because frankly speaking, every time we say that the fourth way is a way to accelerate the CapEx, it's completely online with the target of the PNRR.
The fact that the hydro concession was introduced in the competition law was, in the original idea, a way to accelerated the CapEx. At the end of the day, it's the opposite because till the tender, no one invest EUR 1 in the concession. In this moment, all the public authorities understood that the only way to really to accelerate the CapEx is to reassign to the actual players the concession with an investment plan linked to the new 20 years long concession. Talking about Acerra, the impact full year is EUR 15 million. Consider, guys, that Acerra is the only plant not owned by A2A.
We are talking about the plant in which the return on investment is super high, probably the higher in the group, simply because there are no CapEx allocation from A2A. Talking about the, our strategy, in this moment, surely for our customer is interesting the fixed price because, as you know, the calendar 2027 maintain still a good price for energy. When you sign, for example, a two years contract, yeah, the price is the average between the all the quarter till now, from now till 2028. The price is interesting and of course stable. This is the reason for why 50% of our customer ask for fixed price. Our strategy is really to push more as possible the 10 years contract.
Exactly yesterday we sign the first PPA for a small business. That is interesting because in this moment we have a PPA for a corporate, for large business, steel product and so on. We had the product for mass market, we haven't a product for small business. This is the reason for why we decided to build a PPA also for small business. Exactly yesterday started this new product, and immediately we signed the first contract. Is really important in my idea because for small business it's very difficult to be, to deal with as PPA profile and so on. They need exactly like mass market standard products.
The idea to give the opportunity also to small business to understand that with renewable you can fix the price for a really long term, in my opinion, is the real change of paradigm of renewable. It's very important that every categories of customers can have a possibility to sign a contract linked to renewable for long term. We are doing. I think that we are the only company that is working in this strategy.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Roberto Letizia of EQUITA.
Thanks. I only have one remaining question, which is still on the retail commercial approach. Just wondering if you can share with us how much of the current fixed sales price are expiring within the end of the year for which you will go into price negotiation? If you can tell us what kind of approach will you prefer now?
Will you be more aggressive on the price even because you can by serving those contracts through renewable, trying, as you said, push the PPA at very low price from a higher starting point because prices in the next six months will be high, so maybe you will have a chance to be aggressive, but not decreasing the offer price that much in order to bring a quarter market share and then build up on the strategy of the long-term contract. Can you elaborate a bit how much this is a window of opportunity by having the pool price that is pushed by the end of the year with a mix of expiring fixed contract that can be renewed at those conditions? Thanks a lot.
Consider that, starting from the fact that today, the customer are divided half and half between mix and variable. Starting from the fact that, in my idea, even I looking, in 2030, let's say, I imagine a world with a lot of PPA mass market, so fixed price, but not two years, but longer linked to renewable and the rest variable. In this moment, surely the fact that we are able to build a PPA mass market and small business give us the opportunity to sign PPA to a higher price than the PPA that we are able to sign with steel product or also with data centers and so on. Because, you know, the marginality in mass market and small business is higher.
To give a numbers, for example, the PPA, the PPA mass market is EUR 105 for MWh. The typical PPA in this moment, B2B for a typical profile for a steel product is EUR 85. The differences is huge, 20%. The price of a small business is in the middle. The capacity to put on the market products able to face the needs of mass market small business, in my opinion, is an incredible opportunity to sell our green energy to a good price. Remaining on the one year or two years fixed price, it will, you know, is surely not the company with the lowest price because our strategy remain to give a good services.
We are recognized like a company, both for mass market than for B2B, able to give value in our ancillary services, starting from the fact that there is someone that is able to respond clearly to our call center when you have a problem. Our strategy is this one, and seems to work well because if you look exactly the free market, the fact that in this quarter with the huge, huge churn that we saw, and with the result also looking our traditional competitors, I am absolutely happy to see our numbers.
Thank you very much. The next question comes from the line of Davide Candela of Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Thank you for the presentation and for taking my question. I have three. The first one is regards what you said on the power demand evolution in first quarter. I was wondering if you can share some flavor about your ability of capturing this demand increase in the region, and maybe if this will be served through your own plans you have in the region, like the new renewable developments you expect or your CCGTs per capacity. That is the first one. Second one, with regards to the disruption in energy markets.
First one, with the increase in energy prices, was wondering if you can share some data regarding April and May consumption, if actually the high price level is pushing the clients to reduce their consumption in order to contain the expenses related to that. Basically, if you see a trend according to that. Last point with regards to this topic, we have seen that some rumors about other countries in Europe that are thinking about putting some windfall taxes regard to the high energy prices. Maybe it will much more related to the whole sector, but electricity seems not to be excluded at all, or at least at the basic level. What is your position on that?
Do you think that this risk is still there also for Italy and given also the fact that this could be temporary, as you mentioned in your speech before? Thank you.
Hey, Davide, I will take the lead to answer your question. For the power demand evolution and the prices on the market, you know very well that we are managing different technologies. We are on the market with a constructive approach of our energy management department. If you consider that January and February has been months in which the prices went down because of the Decreto Bollette, the energy decree. And there has been a lot of pressure and also some speculation regarding a possible conclusion on the Ukraine war with Russia. We take the opportunity to work with the market to hedge part of our exposure for 2027, for example.
Immediately after the war with Iran, again, we were on, in the market, and we got another opportunity. In particular, with our way to sell the market, we optimized our position in the market, taking, creating value for the company by roughly EUR 15 million-EUR 20 million. This is the way we continue to see the future quarters. Of course, volatility in a certain way, create opportunities, but creates also some stress.
The visibility on the April and mid-May was quite good for the production levels in terms of quantities, like it has been in the first quarter. With good prices, we need to take into consideration the hedging share we have available, so to offset some peak with the hedging average. Regarding the windfall taxes, well, let me say, apart from having a 2 percentage point increase on IRAP, I hope that this is the end of the story. Nevertheless, we will see and we will follow closely what happened also in Europe. We don't see and we haven't heard any rumors for a potential new tax or cap for the energy prices.
Take into consideration the fact that, we are not in the same situation of 2022.
Yeah. Also because the discussion on the Decreto Bollette was super tough, and the result was a couple of point of IRAP for a couple of year. Imagine that today the government, the situation in which, you know, there are only few months of the actual government, will reopen the dossier of the windfall. In my personal opinion, is impossible.
We do have a follow-up question from the line of Emanuele Oggioni of Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Just a quick question about the electricity networks. I saw that in Q1, the electricity network benefited from allowed, higher allowed revenue from the ROSS mechanism. The question is, to what extent that is already included in the guidance, and what will be the benefit for the full year? Thank you.
Yeah. It has been included in the guidance in our target. It comes from part of the new regulation considering the fast money, and it is related to the fact that we are deploying CapEx maybe to a an higher extent. Also considering the fact that as Renato said in the presentation, we are able to move CapEx in the electrification of the grid whenever it is the case, there is the chance because other business maybe are behind the target. We have this kind of flexibility and it is a very positive aspect of the regulation because give us some flexibility.
Thank you. Thank you.
At this point, there are no more questions. I will hand it over back to the speakers for any closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you everyone for taking your attention to our results. If you need any follow-up, please contact the IR department and we will be available shortly.
Thank you.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.