Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Full Year 2021 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I will now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Armani, CEO of the group. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and good afternoon to everybody. Thank you for joining IREN's conference call on full year results, 2021. We start with the most important achievement in the year 2021, in slide two. We aggregated them in four categories: opening of new plants, acquisitions, tenders, and financials. Regarding new facilities, in June, ended the first development phase of the plastic treatment plant in San Giorgio di Nogaro, in the province of Udine. That went into operation with a capacity of 40 kilotons per year. The second phase is expected this year, to 70 kilotons per year. The plant treats plastics to produce blue hydrogen, a component used in steel mills to reduce emissions and electricity consumption in the steel production.
The second part of the year, we started the biomethane production in Cairo Montenotte plant in the province of Savona, and the first batch of Santhià plant in the province of Vercelli. The first plant is at full capacity with the biomethane production of 4.7 million cubic meters per year. Of course, it's not fully integrated this year in the year numbers. Regarding the second one, we expect to ramp up also the second batch at the end of the year to reach 5.3 million cubic meter biomethane production. On top of that, the paper and plastic selection plant in Parma went into operation with total capacity on next year's to 135 kiloton per year. This plant is already recognized as a Comieco platform.
On top of that, during 2021, we continue to open new physical stores on our supply business with a new five points of sale to increase the local presence and to improve the quality of service. Finally, this month, there was the first delivery in the expanded RE landfill that which will start to operate again after two years of closure. On tenders, we participated to the water cycle tender in Reggio Emilia, and we are waiting for the award. We participated to the auction in the capacity market, obtaining the assignment of 22 MW of equivalent capacity for a positive outcome of EUR 1.1 million starting in 2024 and expanding for 15 years.
The battery assigned were a total capacity of 48 MW. That added to the 35 MW batteries under development currently with other contracts make IREN the second operator at national level. We also presented Turin CCGT upgrade plant of 7 MW for the auction of capacity market, and we obtained a contribution of EUR 0.5 million for 15 years. On top of that, we see the confirmation of the capacity market on the existing capacity of 1.86 thousand MW at cap rise. That means around EUR 60 million only in 2024. Of course, future years will require other options.
Concerning acquisitions, as part of the consolidation and rationalization activities resulting from the purchase of the environmental division of Unieco, we acquired control of Futura, a company based in Grosseto that manages mechanical and biological treatment plant of unsorted waste and the facility for quality compost production. We also completed the purchase of 100% of share capital of SID Iren, which with a portfolio of approximately 52,000 gas customers, distributed mainly in the province of Avellino, allows us to strengthen our presence in Campania and enhance the commercial development in central and southern Italy. In autumn 2021, we were awarded the tender for the 51% of shares of Nove, consolidating 100% of the company that provides district heating service in the province of Turin.
We completed the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Bosch Energy and Building Solutions, a company operating in the energy efficiency sector as an ESCO. At the end of the year, we won the tender for the acquisition of 80% of Alegas, which operates in the sale of gas and electricity in the province of Alessandria. It has a portfolio of approximately 43,000 customers, mainly gas customers. We acquired also in consortium with Ascopiave and ACEA several natural gas distribution concessions from A2A. Finally, in January 2022, we completed the acquisition of 121 MW of photovoltaic plants from European Energy, growing the renewable sector to support our ecological transition pillar.
Looking at our financial achievement. In October 2021, we issued a green bond of EUR 200 million as a top issue on a previous emission in 2020. After the presentation of the new strategy of 2020-2030, we received for the first time the rating from S&P equal to BBB- with a positive outlook. We were confirmed after the presentation of the business plan the rating from Fitch as BBB with a stable outlook. Last week, we also received the validation of our business plan emissions targets. On top of that, last week, we signed a new loan with the Council of Europe Development Bank for EUR 80 million to develop district heating in Turin metropolitan area.
We published a new sustainable financing framework that will allow us to enter in other sustainable financial instruments in the near future. We currently, I remind to everybody, have 64% of our total debt that is composed by green or assimilated instruments. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, we had the validation by Science Based Targets initiative of our emission targets included in our business plan. Continuing on our ESG and effort. We go to slide three. ESG KPIs show the effort of the company to pursue the pillars outlined in our business plan. During 2021, 70% of total CapEx was invested in sustainable projects that translated into E.U. taxonomy makes 60%.
The results reported through 2021 related to the green transition confirm that we are on track to reach the ambitious targets that we have in our business plan. In particular, this year we achieved the reduction of 3% of the carbon intensity on Scope 1 emission. That was possible due to the higher production in district heating in our networks. The result of 323 g of CO2 per kWh is in line with the path leading to half our carbon intensity by 2030. Targets validated by Science Based Targets initiative are in line during the plan with the well below 2 degrees Celsius scenario. In the last year, we started biomethane production with 1.8 million m³ injected into the network.
Furthermore, we remarkably increased the green energy sold, thanks to our commercial campaigns. The increase in district heating volumes of 2%, the attainment of 73% of sorted waste collection, thanks to door-to-door and punctual pricing collection systems, and the large amount of condominium rebuilding projects strengthen our IREN's local presence and the effort to reduce consumption. Finally, we improved the service quality in all our activities. In particular, this is evident with the increased customer satisfaction index. Furthermore, we reduced water leaks in our network to 32.6%, in line with the target of reaching 20% in 2030. This result was possible thanks to the districtization activities that will allow greater monitoring and timely intervention.
On top of that, a further improvement on the amount of steel and gas network protection shows the effort to modernize the distribution network of gas. Now we want to turn to the economic results. You have already seen from our communication that results were very positive, but to give more color on the numbers, we like to highlight which were the main drivers for this performance. All economic and financial parameters have been reported positive compared to last year.
Analyzing the main elements which affected the 10% EBITDA growth, we can find the organic growth that is worth EUR 31 million is sustained by the investments made in previous years on the network, with the positive effect on the tariff that is incorporated in 2021 tariffs. The expansion of the district heating network, plus rebuilding activities in the energy efficiency business unit, and the expansion of our customer base. Consolidation thanks to Unieco and I.Blu acquisitions in 2020 contributes to the growth of EBITDA, along with the Sid IREN market acquisition reaching EUR 24 billion. The effect related to the energy scenario overall impacts for EUR 23 million.
That is a combination of effect with higher energy prices, especially on hydro and WT plants, along with extraordinary MSD results and market service results, partially offset by the loss in the electricity and gas supply market. This is in line with our hedging policies that exploit the natural hedging between our business lines. In terms of volumes, we reported a EUR +18 million effect, particularly with the increase of heat distribution and electricity sold to end clients, partially counterbalanced by lower energy production. The positive outcome on EBITDA level drives the growth of net profit, which is also affected by some extraordinary elements that will be explained better later by Anna.
The investments were up 5%, with a higher increase than reported on waste and on market business. In waste, mainly the building of new treatment plants, as I said before, and in supply, the acquisition of new clients, particularly from the acquisition of SID IREN and Alegas. I will leave the floor now to Anna to go through the business units and the financials.
Thank you, Gianni, and good afternoon, everyone. Moving on to the single business unit results, starting with the business unit networks on slide five. 2021, EBITDA posted a 2% growth, reaching EUR 383 million, mainly linked to water and electricity distribution. EBITDA was positively impacted by EUR 70 million by a growth in allowed revenues, supported by past year's investment. However, such growth was partially offset by exceptional higher operational costs, mainly linked to service quality improvement of the water network, such as leak detection and sewage works, and process digitalization, again, of water networks. Investments for the year increased by EUR 14 million versus prior year, as shown in the chart on the top right, and were mainly related to water and electricity networks, and in particular to the revamping of wastewater treatment plants.
Districtization activities continued throughout the year, reaching more than 60% of the grid at the end of 2021. Moving on to business unit waste on slide six. The 31% EBITDA increase to EUR 227 million has been mainly driven by the enlargement of the consolidation perimeters already mentioned by Gianni, organic growth and the favorable energy scenario. In particular, EUR 22 million were a result of the full year impact of the consolidation of the acquired companies, Unieco and I.Blu, as already mentioned, allowing us, amongst others, to increase the waste volumes managed by 18% compared to prior year. In addition, 2021 has seen a supportive energy scenario on electricity and heat sold by WTEs, also thanks to an increase in our volumes produced by +54%, thanks also to the full integration of the Turin WTE to the grid.
Finally, the business unit has also experienced higher prices of recoverable waste, also resulting from the phasing of new plants in the final months of 2021. On the other hand, 2021 has seen the cease in the contribution from the RE landfill, which will restart operations with an extended capacity from this year, so 2022. As for investment, EUR 164 million have been invested to build new treatment plants to increase our capacity, particularly organic fraction of BSM production. Moving on...
Before we move on, actually, to the business unit energy and market, in order for you to put the results in the right context, I would like to highlight the resilience of our business model, which is based on a fully integrated energy value chain and a natural hedging between upstream, has allowed us to balance the positive evolution of the energy scenario, mostly for renewables, with the adverse downstream exposure of the market business unit. Focusing now on the business unit energy in slide seven, the 31% increase of EBITDA to EUR 298 million has been affected by EUR 47 million of the margin increase on the ancillary service market, as already commented by Gianni. However, partially offset by the lower spark spread on thermal.
As for heat, the adverse clean spark spread of the year, affected by rising costs of CO2, have been compensated by higher volumes, mainly thanks to the network expansion and to favorable weather conditions. Finally, 2021 has seen an increase in activity, enhanced profitability generated by IREN Smart Solutions. The investments made in the year were mostly related to the construction of the new thermoelectric line in Turbigo, which will start operations in the second half of the year, 2022, the expansion of district heating networks, and the flexibilization of our plant. Moving on to the business unit Markets, slide eight. 2021 results, as said, have been largely affected by the ramp up of commodity prices on unhedged volumes, which we've been able to recover at group level through hydro and WTE production and through our natural hedging strategy.
The main positive achievement of the year for the business unit has been an increase in retail clients acquisition at 2 million at the end of the year, so +7% versus prior year. New clients have been mainly acquired on the electricity free market, while the increase in gas clients is mainly related to the acquisition of the company, SID IREN. The acquisition of new clients took place mainly through digital channel. This is shown by the strong performances of digital and self-care operations, which reported a +10% and a 13% increase, respectively. The growth of the customer base is directly related with the increase in electricity volumes sold to end clients, almost 6 TWh, +4% versus 2020. The higher volumes sold to retail and small and medium companies offset the reduction in B2B segment.
Gas reported higher volumes sold to end clients, actually + 3%, thanks to colder temperatures. On slide number nine, we've summarized the EBITDA to group net profit reconciliation. Here on top with what we've already seen in the previous slide, I would like just to mention a few items. One, it's higher depreciation versus prior year, mainly linked to increased investment, as said, and combined with I.Blu and Unieco full year consolidations, which we've already discussed. Provisions for bad debts have been favorably impacted by around EUR 8 million from the reduction of COVID-19 impact on bad debt, which has been EUR 10 million in 2021 in terms of provisions versus EUR 25 million of the prior year.
As for financial charges, here I would like to highlight a strong decrease in our average cost of debt from 2.1% in 2020 to 1.7% in 2021. As for taxes, I would like to highlight here a EUR 32 million one-off tax income effect on our 2021 taxes, which is a result of the Decreto Agosto 2020, which has allowed us to realign our tax and book values of selected assets. Ordinary tax rate, just for you to know, has been 29% in 2021. Moving on to the next slide, number 10. We show our net financial position evolution between 2020 and 2021. Here, only very few comments.
Very visible from the chart, the increase in investments, which we've already commented, combined with the impact of acquisitions and the dividend payments, have been more than offset by our robust operating cash flow generation. Operating cash flow generation, which has been also thanks to our effective and optimized working capital management across the year, and combined also with a positive contribution from the fair value of derivatives mainly related to commodities. I will now hand it over to Gianni for our closing remarks and an outlook on 2022.
Thank you, Anna. The strong results reported in 2021 are driven by the Group effectiveness in several areas, carrying out an intense investment pipeline to sustain organic growth. This is a guarantee for future growth and returns. Active management of integrated value chain, exploiting the natural edging in our different business line and capacity to mitigate risk, along with the effective working capital management as anticipated by Anna, and the ability to extract value from integrating new companies in our business model and effective returns to shareholders.
We therefore open the door to an anticipation of the 10% growth in dividend per share outlined in last year business plan, increasing the 2021 dividend per share to EUR 10.5, with an effective growth of 10.5% versus last year. Finally, I would like to give a short outlook on 2022 guidelines. The group has already detected the presence of some negative effect that will impact the profitability on 2022, like the energy scenario volatility, the change in market framework, particularly the government measures that will be and have been introduced in our sectors, the WACC reduction and the drought on our hydro production.
Despite these actions, this action has been taken to mitigate the adverse effects and improve the resilience of our business model. For this reason, we are confident that we are able to confirm the guidance that we presented a few weeks ago. On an EBITDA level, we confirm the rate of growth of 6% versus 2021 full year results. Despite the improved results versus previous guidance, the positive net debt over EBITDA ratio reported in 2021 allows us to speed up the investments foreseen in 2022, up to EUR 1.5 billion of gross investments, which include, of course, investment with contributions up to EUR 100 million compared to the business plan estimates.
We expect an acceleration in particularly on renewable development as requested by the current energy crisis. In particular, we expect to reach half of the target that we posted in 2026 on installed capacity. We also confirm the guidance on the ratio net financial position over EBITDA that will be around 3.4 multiple. We open up the session for Q&A, and we are here to reply to your questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone. To withdraw your questions, please press a pound or hash key. Once again, please press star one if you wish to ask a question. The first question comes from the line of Javier Suarez from Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, and thank you for the presentation. I have several questions. The first one is on the outlook for 2022. You mentioned and I have noticed the quite significant increase in investment versus the previous guidance. Basically, that this doesn't imply any significant movement in net debt to EBITDA level. I think that the previous guidance was between 3.3-3.5, 3.4x , and now we are guiding towards the upper end of the range. Can you help us to understand that?
The delta, I think that you mentioned that during your speech, in terms of net investment is just EUR 200 million or it's more than that? If you can elaborate again on the reasons for that increase in CapEx versus the previous previous guidance, and when we are going to see that impact in the EBITDA. I guess that if those investments are on renewables energies, maybe the impact on growth is going to be seen from 2023. Is that a fair comment? That's the first question. The second question is on the outlook for 2022. Again, there are several moving pieces.
The question is, if you can help us to understand your expectations from the negative contribution from the drought, negative contribution from the government measures, what you are expecting from the MSD market in 2022, and the mitigating factor that you see to maintain that 6% EBITDA growth in 2022 versus 2020 and 2021. The different building blocks would be very helpful. The third question is on your latest hedging for your generation capacity. If you can make explicit the level of forward selling for 2022 and on your supply strategy, if you feel the need to change your strategy on the supplier activity, in light of a very difficult commodity price scenario.
We have seen other operators suspending fixed prices, offering what IREN intends to do in light of this difficult scenario from a commodity price point of view? Many thanks.
Okay. Let me start, try to answer, then Anna will complete my preliminary answer. On investments, we had a projection instead of EUR 1 billion of technical investments, which means CapEx or organic CapEx that we increase by EUR 100 million, basically all concentrated on renewables. We are not forecasting additional EBITDA from these investments, even though we might expect some positive contribution from those plans. We have several discussions in place, and we have been granted options on authorization that are going to be obtained this year, so we are confident on this target.
The complement on this are basically two additional components, EUR 200 million on financial investments, part of which are the acquisition of Puglia Holding, the European Energy acquisition, and EUR 200 million are concentrated on the energy efficiency business. That is an EPC activity that is not absorbing financial contribution from our company. That is a very effective contribution on EBITDA level. Then on the negative side, we have estimated an impact from first of all the elements that the new effect on the norms that have been approved by the government. On extra profiti, basically the Sostegni, we have already communicated an expected impact of EUR 15 million.
That is totally incorporated in the numbers and the guidance of 2022. We have an expected impact on rateizzazione [Foreign language], the impact on all the provisions on protection of clients and stoccaggi gas and storage, gas storage, where we expect mainly an impact on working capital, estimated EUR 200 million. That is incorporated in our numbers. We are currently not expecting any impact on the EBITDA level on gas storage, given the fact that the tenders on gas capacity have been not fulfilled, and probably the norm will allow negative pricing on gas storage to compensate for the different price, the differential pricing between summer and winter gas prices.
In addition, we have evaluated the impact of the solidarity contribution that is expected from energy production company and importers and companies. Therefore, all these three elements, negative elements, have been compensated. Instead, on the drought we are expecting a reduced production of 200 GWh, more or less. Yes, 200 GWh. And this, of course, at lower prices than expected, given the fact that they are subject to the sustainability impact. These numbers are incorporated in the outlook that we foresee in 2022. On MSD instead, we had a very positive year this year, up to more than EUR 120 million along the year.
This was obtained also with a policy that reduced artificially the margins on the market prices. Basically, we acted even in some circumstances participating to the market with negative spark spread in order to capture opportunity on the MSD prices. Of course, we cannot foresee a similar strategy in the future, but we expect that the combination of margins on the energy market, plus the margin in MSD, will remain constant during the year. In terms of, yes, fixed prices versus variable.
We currently are looking at fixed prices market that is potentially very interesting because it could be very attractive and very effective for clients, especially if we are able to consolidate and to extend the contract duration with the clients. This is probably a potential value that we can transfer to our clients in order to obtain a better market position. I would like to highlight that this year, actually, in 2021, we have been able to offer to our clients, on average, 25% discount versus average market prices on electricity, and over 35% average discount on gas prices, all through the year.
We have been very effective to transfer to our clients our ability to hedge the electricity and the gas prices all through the year. Similarly, this will have an effect in the future. Of course, in today's numbers that we presented, we are representing natural hedging without any compensation among business units. This is, of course, a misrepresentation of the overall contribution of the individual business units. I would like to highlight that we manage our energy value chain as a whole, independently from the single business unit contribution. This allows us to minimize the need for external hedging, exploiting to the maximum value our internal hedging.
This is clearly seen in the overall results that are very positive, independently on the energy prices and the fluctuations.
Yeah. Javier, maybe one last remark to your question on our net debt on EBITDA ratio. We gave a guidance which is on the high end of the range, you're right, for two main reasons. One is what Gianni commented at the beginning of his answer. We anticipate some headwinds on the working capital, mainly linked to the rateizzazioni [Foreing language],and other government measures which may be or have been introduced. Second, that was also mentioned by Gianni during the presentation, we may accelerate some investments in mainly renewables, and this is very much in line, first of all, with our strategy and second with the overall scenario. We wanted to leave us some headroom to do that in the year.
Just as a follow-up, can you make explicit the level of hedging the volumes that are hedged for 2020, 2022, or 2023 for your hydro and waste to energy capacity and the level of prices in absolute terms?
Yes. We have 80% of our hydro plus photovoltaic production that is hedged at EUR 95 per MWh. The WTE production that is 100% hedged at EUR 130 per MWh. 65% of our thermal production that is hedged at 5.5 EUR per MWh at least per spark spread. On the heat production, we have 86% of our expected production that is hedged at 47.5 EUR per MWh thermal in 2022.
For 2023?
I don't know if we have the number offhand here. Sorry, I cannot reply to this right now.
Okay, many thanks. Thank you.
Overall...
Go ahead. Thank you.
Let's move on to other questions.
Yes, let's move on.
Okay. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. The next question comes from the line of Stefano Gamberini from Equita SIM. Please go ahead.
Hey, good afternoon, everybody. A few questions also from my side. The first regarding the waste business. Could you give us a picture of 2022 in the waste business after the big jump you recorded during 2021? Just first, you can give us some color of the market and what are the main drivers for your performance in 2022. The second question regarding, you hedge very well 2022 production. Am I wrong, there is a CapEx EUR 68 by the government, so I didn't catch exactly how does it work, in your estimates. So at the end of the day, the hydro and solar capacity already sold at EUR 95 work at these prices in your EBITDA guidance or at a lower one? And what is the scenario for 2023?
Are you already doing some hedging on 2023? What is the situation on this topic? Other two quick questions. One, if you can repeat the guidance on CapEx, because if I'm not wrong, you said EUR 1.5 billion of CapEx, gross CapEx, and then EUR 1 billion of technical CapEx. I guess net CapEx, just to understand the difference. Very lastly, regarding regulation. Now, there are discussion about possible changes in regulation for hydro concession. Lombardy is going ahead with the tenders. On the other side, at the European level, there are some discussion also there to change the whole system. If I'm not wrong, also the parliament is working on this concession, on the law for concession, hydro plants. Could you give us a summary on what is your view on this sector? Many thanks.
Yeah, maybe just quickly on the CapEx, because I think this is an easy one. When we gave the outlook during the business plan presentation, we gave a net CapEx guidance of EUR 1 billion. Now, in this slide, so today's presentation, it's the same, basically the same baseline, but this now, this time we displayed it as gross, simply because this ties with our storyline and what we also presented during the business plan, which has always been the same as EUR 13 billion of the 10-year strategic plan, have always been displayed gross. We wanted to switch the kind of communication.
The baseline is the same, and the delta between the two are around EUR 200 or EUR 300, between EUR 200 and EUR 300, let's say EUR 250 of M&As, of which a big portion is the acquisition of the renewables assets from European Energy already carried out. The remaining is basically the IREN Smart Solutions part, which is then offset by contributions and incentives. I hope that clarifies.
Yeah.
Yeah, thank you.
Looking at the environmental, I mean, our waste management business, we have basically entering into a full entry into operations of a few plants. As said, Cairo Montenotte and Santhią will be producing full year. We also have locked our energy production at EUR 133-EUR 130 per MWh, 100% of our production from WTE. Plus we have an increase in margin from waste management of EUR 7 million, partially offset by the increased cost, actually, yes, increased cost of the waste collection business, given as a consequence from the awarding of the tenders in Emilia.
We also are going to consolidate the say SEI Toscana participation I mean probably in the second half of the year that is more or less on an annual basis EUR 7 million of EBITDA. We have no hedging on 2023. We currently are experiencing a very low liquidity on all hedging instruments in 2023 with a longer extension. Of course you have to remind that we have a very strong natural hedging position which give us quite a strong confidence that I mean a big great part of our production is in general hedged.
On extra profits evaluation, the Sostegni decree was converted with the positive outcome that renewables that were built at grid parity were excluded. This has allowed us to have a full extraction of EBITDA from the Puglia Holding acquisition, which will probably have a double EBITDA from the one that we declared the acquisition. Also this favors the acceleration of new investments in renewables that we projected on the investment targets. We have also managed to compensate great part of our exposure with the contracts that we have on the client base.
Of course, a lot of details on the implementation of the Sostegni plan still needs to be implemented, given the fact that the delibera of the authority needs to be published. Also the definition of what is a contract acceptable to clarify what is the price that you are exposed to is something that needs to be clarified by the authority. The overall impact that we are estimating is EUR 15 million, given our current exposure. This is included in our forecast of 2022 results. What else? Hydro regulation. On hydro concessions, we are of course following the developments that are currently being issued in Europe.
Basically, European Commission has listed the infringement on the provisions implemented in most of European states. Also the one against Italy. In France, some concessions are being extended with granting new investments to the current owners of the concessions. This is of course a significant element for the Italian regulator. We are looking at the extension of these concessions in a more competitive way.
We are forecasting in our business plan the possibility to have a project finance contract based on the fact that the existing concessionaire has a much higher ability to identify effective investments that could be proposed in a tender based on a project finance framework. This is what we are forecasting. Of course, if different models are going to be implemented by the Italian government that are more favorable, we look at them.
Many thanks.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Emanuele Oggioni from Kepler. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for taking my question as well. In particular, still on CapEx. This acceleration on the CapEx, I would like to understand better what the main focus are, so in which businesses will be deployed in particular compared to the current plan, the previous expectation. In particular, what will be the impact on the contribution to EBITDA in 2023. Because if I understood well, you said before that the additional contribution to EBITDA for this year will be zero from this CapEx. When and what will be the additional EBITDA contribution for this additional investments? Thank you.
I said that main contribution looking at splitting the contribution we are increasing EUR 100 million on the energy efficiency CapEx vis-a-vis 2021. That is basically all external contribution CapEx and is not going to impact our financing. We are also including the acquisition of a European Energy investment we made at the beginning of the year which is EUR 160 million more or less. That is basically all the differences that we have compared to a previous year. We have an increase of EUR 200 million-EUR 250 million vis-a-vis 2021 on the technical investments.
This is mainly driven by environment, the plans that are currently in place, which is basically EUR 70 million. We are also accelerating the investments on the network, basically other than EUR 15 million. Basically all the rest is concentrated on the energy sector, mainly, also there is giving a plan that they have implemented, but mainly on renewables. Overall, vis-a-vis the previous guidance, we are modifying the technical investments by EUR 100 million. 100% of this is concentrated on renewables. Of course, the return on these investments can be highlighted by the fact that we communicated the acquisition of Puglia Holding with an EBITDA of EUR 15 million and EUR 160 million of CapEx, more or less.
We are currently experiencing double the EBITDA during this year.
Excuse me, as regards the new renewables, when you say the new renewables, do you mean only acquisitions or also organic growth?
pardon?
When you mention an increase in CapEx in investments in renewable.
Marginal external growth, that is only the authorization part. Of course, extraordinary acquisition if the return is there. We might look at them, but they are excluded currently from our plan.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Once again, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. There are no more questions at this time. I would like to hand the conference back over to Mr. Armani. Please go ahead.
Well, thank you very much to everybody, and have a good evening.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.