Good morning, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to CPFL Energia's Q4 2019 Earnings Conference Call. Today with us, we have Mr. Gustave Estrella, CEO of CPFL Energia and Mr. Pan, CFO and Investor Relations Officer of the company as well as other officers of the company.
The presentation is available for download at the CPFL Energia Investor Relations website, which is cpfl.com.br/ investorrelations. We would like to inform you that all participants will be in listen only mode during the company's presentation. And at the end, we will call the question and answer session when further instructions will be given. We would like to remind you that this call is being recorded. Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that forward looking statements are being made under the Safe Harbor of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996.
Such forward looking statements are beliefs and assumptions of the company's management as well as information currently available to the company. Forward looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve rates, uncertainties and assumptions as they refer to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not materialize. Investors should understand that general economic condition, industry condition and other operating factors may affect the future performance of CPFL Energia and may lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward looking statements. Now we would like to turn the floor over to Mr.
Gustave Hsera. Mr. Hsera, you may proceed. Thank you very much. Good morning.
Thank you very much for participating in our call about the results of 2019. And now let's go straight to Page number 3 in which we have the main highlights for 2019. I would like to start by the increase in our load in the concession area amounted to 1.2%, and we will see this in detail. This growth has been very much pushed forward by growth in consumption of lower voltage, especially residential, record result, EBITDA rating BRL 6,394,000,000, growing by 13.4% year on year. Net income, record BRL2.748 billion, growing by 26 0.9% on a year on year basis.
Net debt total net debt BRL 16,800,000,000 and measured by the net debt EBITDA ratio with the financial covenants, 2.52x, an important drop visavisheendof2018, which was 3 times. Investments another year with investments higher than BRL 2,000,000,000. We closed the year with BRL 2,254,000,000, growing by 9.3% year on year due to the growth the reduction of our indebtedness and growth in our results, the company proposes to pay a dividend payout of BRL 2.35 billion or BRL 1.8 per share, BRL 2,075,000,000. And we had a very important tariff review in CPFL Piratinga in October 2019 with a negative adjustment of 7.8%, mostly due to the reduction of the charges of the CDE. And in spite of the reduction in tariff, we had an important increase in our parcel B amounting to 6.2%, mostly led by the transfer of the IGPM to our tariffs.
Once again, the highlight of our IPO, re IPO, which happened in June 2019. And I would like to mention here our average trading of BRL94,000,000 in the stock exchange with a very positive result visavis the participation in the main share indices in the Brazilian market. And we are getting close to 50 with an expectation which is positive already in the Bovista in the next few months. We integrated the process of BRL 4,100,000,000 in the safety of our Menelofib is BRL 16.845 per share. And we continue with the delisting of CPL Renovav is over 2020.
We also had an important process of integration of CPFL Renovares into CPFL in New Guinea already announced to the market during our re IPO process. And we concluded the process at the end of last year in December. And today, CPFL Renovavas is already fully integrated in our headquarters in Campina. We started an important process in CPFL Renovavas of debt replacement. We already had BRL138 1,000,000, and we expect to continue with this process over 2020 with a reduction in the cost and the extension of the terms in CFE Genovave.
Now going to Slide 4. We have the highlight of energy sales in the Q4 of 2019. This quarter was positive in terms of our sales with the growth of 2.4% and our sales in the concession area. Load and sales, 4.2%. Per class of consumption, we see an important highlight in residential and commercial.
This is a very important highlight in the Q4 of 2019 vis a vis 2018. And industrial, still a slower recovery compared to the others. Slide number 5, where we have the energy sales for the full year of 2019, growing by 1.2% in load and 1.3% in the sales of the concession area. And I would like to highlight that over 2019, CPFL had the migration of some customers from our market to a direct connection to the national grid and but no effect on the margins of the company. But it really hinders when you compare to the market performance of 2019 visavis18.
So net of the effect of the migration of these customers, this 1.2%, in fact, is a 1.9% growth in consumption in our concession area. Once again, we see the highlight that comes from the low voltage residential and commercial. Basically, the effect of temperatures that affect consumption in a positive fashion in the residential and commercial sectors and also effect on the industry with a drop of 1.4% and net of the effect of migrations. In fact, industry was practically stable vis a vis 2018 with a drop of 0.1%. On Page 6.
On Page 6, we see delinquency energy losses. 2 very important points monitored last year in the distribution segment. Delinquency with an important drop from the 3rd to the 4th quarter going from 0.87% to 0.49%. And I would like to mention that we carried out some renegotiations with some customers over the Q4 of 2019. Therefore, we see an one off effect net of this effect of these negotiations, we would get to a delinquency level on the same comparison basis of 0 point 7%, but still lower than the Q3 and practically in line with the end of 2018.
We see a slow drop, but there is a downward trend in delinquency. And we continue to be very strong in our actions regarding collection, especially the cuts, energy cuts. In the Q4, 591,000 cuts, the highest volume of cuts in 1 single quarter. And we expect to maintain the same number or at very high levels so that we may control and further reduce delinquency over 2020. Now talking about energy losses.
Practically stable with a very slight reduction in energy vis a vis 2018. We closed last year with 8.89% of losses. In spite of this reduction, we are still higher than the regulatory caps. And this is a major challenge of 600,000 inspections over 2019 so that we may identify and fight this in our concession areas. Slide 7.
We have a whole set of information that affect directly or indirectly our generation segment. We see a drop in the spot price visavis2018, a 21% drop. The average spot price in BRL 20.27 per megawatt hour and at the beginning of this year with an expectation of an even lower spot price than 2019 due to the high rainfall that we had, especially in the Northeast at the beginning of this year. GSF, 8.3% increase, reaching 91% GSF in 2019. SHPP is a reduction in the flow of water from our projects in our SHPP is a 3% reduction visavis2018, and this also affects our production of energy over the year.
Wind generation, a drop of 4.6% visavis2018. And we can see here that it is directly connected to the wind performance in our wind farms with a drop of 4.9 percent when you compare to the curve of P50, we reached 85% of P50, slightly lower than the volumes of 2018, and this has a direct impact on our total energy generation. Wind availability, we see a growth of almost 2%. And the good news here comes especially from the Seara wind farms with Atuzo machines. And after our in sourcing at the end of last year, we can see an improvement, a significant improvement in the performance and the availability of our machines and our wind farms after this in sourcing.
Now I would like to give the floor to Ben so that he may talk about the details of the results of the company.
Good morning, everyone. Now turning to Slide number 8. The EBITDA in this quarter was of BRL 1,700,000,000, 28.6 percent higher. The distribution segment was up 37.3%. The main impact came from market and tariff gains, a total of BRL 238,000,000, especially thanks to load increase in our concession areas.
And Gustavo already talked about that. And also, we had additional effects such as increasing other revenues and reduction in our ADA after several quarters higher. In commercialization services and others, there was a significant increase of 108.4%. In services, I stressed the good performance of CPFRE services with excellent results in 2019, EUR 16,000,000 higher in this Q4. In commercialization, the volume sold drop was offset by higher prices, increasing our margin in 8,000,000.
In the next slide, we have conventional generation, which posted an EBITDA 6.1% higher. And the main effects were the inflation rate transfer to contracts, 25,000,000, partially offset by the GSF of our small share of GSF of our energy in the free market, which was negative €7,000,000 and others minus €1,000,000 In CPFLI, Genovavis, EBITDA was up 26.1 percent. Thanks to assets write off in the Q4 of and which was BRL 60,000,000 higher wind farms generation, plus EUR 28,000,000, and that was partially offset by the integration of CPFL E Henovavis and CPFL Energia, minus €4,000,000. And the end of the grace period in O and M payments, increasing expenses in 3,000,000 and others minus 3,000,000. Turning to Slide 10.
We have our net income performance, which was BRL 857,000,000 in the quarter, 27.8 percent higher vis a vis 2018. In addition to the variation of EUR 387,000,000 variation in the EBITDA, other effects include in the financial results, a drop of 108,000,000 because of lower interest rates and reduction of the net debt, allowing a gain of BRL 98,000,000. Depreciation has varied 48,000,000, and there was a tax increase of 260,000,000 because of better results and posting of tax credits, which were higher in 2018 than in 2019. In the next slide, the results for 2019, an all time high for CiepEFIAVI. EBITDA was up 13.4%, an increase of 757,000,000.
Net income was up 582,000,000, and that represents an increase of 26.9 percent. As for EBITDA, distribution was higher, thanks to load and tariff increases, partially offset by PMSO and ADA. Another highlight is renewable generation, which was in the same level of 2018 in spite of the poor wind performance. About net income, in addition to our EBITDA positive effect, we also had a better financial result of BRL 376,000,000, thanks to lower indebtedness and lower debt cost. Now turning to the next slide, the company's indebtedness.
On the top chart, net debt totaled 16,800,000,000, and the EBITDA of the last 12 months was EUR 6,700,000,000. Leverage, which is measured by net debt over EBITDA, was 2.52x. On the gross debt breakdown, we can see that 63% are CDI indexed, and that has helped bringing down the debt cost. Compared to 2018, main changes in 2019 were the reduction in debts indexed by long term interest rates and increase of IPCA indexed debt. On the next chart, the debt cost over the past few years, both real and nominal.
The drop from 2018 to 2019 was mainly because of the interest rate reduction, the select rate. Cash position by the end of 4Q 'nineteen had a coverage of 0.62x of the amortization of next year, which is enough to pay for 2020's maturities. The average amortization term, which is calculated based on the schedule, is of 3.18 years. On the next slide, our CapEx. This year, we have invested BRL 2,200,000,000, over 9% higher vis a vis 2018 and very much in line to our plans.
Considering each segment, we had for distribution, a total of BRL 2,000,000,000 invested in expansion and improvement in the system. For generation and transmission, EUR126,000,000 were invested in renewable, EUR 21,000,000 in transmission and EUR 12,000,000 in conventional generation. For the transmission segment, we invested Mahimara Kanao, Su-1 and Su-two projects, which were acquired in 20 eighteen's auctions. Finally, services. There, we have invested a total of BRL 62,000,000.
On the next slide, our estimated CapEx for the next 5 years. And considering a total investment of EUR 13,500,000,000 of those EUR 11,600,000,000 for distribution, BRL 1,200,000,000 for generation with focus on renewable, BRL 233,000,000 in commercialization and services and BRL 564,000,000 in transmission. So now I turn the floor back to Mr. Gustavo Estrella. Thank you very much, Pam.
Now let's turn to Slide number 15 in which we have our strategic plan from 20 20 to 2024, it's important for us to split it into markets. Our plan follows the line and the way the CPFL acts regarding safety and growth and new businesses and operational efficiency, maybe with 2 important highlights here. First, the digitization of the company, and that has been the focus of the company in guiding our investment and the way we mold not only our current business as the company but prospective future businesses. So automation and digital operation is very are very relevant for our strategic plan from 2020 to 2024 besides customer focus. And we're going through a very big transformation in our customers in the powers market, and we must focus on service client or customer service in our regular business and also in other businesses that might we might participate in, in the future.
This is fundamental. These two pillars are fundamental and they will be the guidelines for our future As a backdrop for the plan, we have our sustainability plan, and we always say that results are very important. But the way we achieve them and how we achieve them is as important as this is why our sustainability plan is the basis. So these are the guidelines and these are the foundations of our growth plan, our investment plan for the next 5 years. Very well.
This is what we wanted to share with you. And now we would like to turn to our Q and A session. Ladies and gentlemen, we will start now the Q and A session. It will be in Portuguese and simultaneous interpretation into English. Gustavo Miele, Itau BBA.
Good morning, Gustavo. Good morning, Pam. Thank you for the presentation. I would like to ask a question about distribution. Besides the very strong volume that you reported in this quarter, the main highlight as far as we are concerned was the fact that you were able to achieve a very good, very acceptable number of losses without having a big stress on the OpEx.
So I would like to know what is your expectation from now on regarding this dynamic ADA hand in hand with OPEC? You talked about the number of inspections. And is this the idea for your fight against losses from now on still? Or do you intend to reduce further reduce losses with this controlled OpEx? And maybe the time has come for you to cut losses more slowly, I would say, preserving the healthy OpEx that you have been delivering.
So could you talk about this dynamic, please? Hi, Gustavo. This is Luisenhito. And on the other hand, we are fighting a delinquency and losses both. And in order to be more selective by means of analysis, we to put artificial intelligence here in the program for a better selection of the inspection points or even the cut points so that we may have the best possible margin with these cuts and also with inspections, bringing about better results with a lower number of inspections and cuts with a much, much better ever ticket.
From this viewpoint, we have a lot of discipline. And in the next few months, we are going to seek this discipline looking for a good average ticket and doing inspections and the selection of cuts in an intelligent fashion with a lower cost. And regarding what we expect, of course, we had the calendar effect of the results, but we need to keep this stable or even further reducing, and we are investing and we are about to end the installment of the intelligent meters in RGE Sul. And this will bring about a better monitoring of Group A, which has a major amount of energy so that we may track this in a better fashion and a more selective cut and a more selective inspection tracking the load of this area. So it's really a summation of all these factors.
But the question of intelligence that we put in the commercial area, we intend to roll this out to the next few years. Thank you very much, Luis. Very clear. Gustavo, just adding to what Luis asked by means of technology and analytics, we can be more assertive in our fight against losses. Just to remind you, the effect that he talked about is the calendar effect, and this has an impact on the calculation of losses when we look at shorter periods such as 1 quarter.
So we have to look at 1 quarter as being a trend, and we have this downward trend in terms of losses. But when we look at longer periods like 1 year, it's slightly higher. So this is one way to analyze the data. And we saw the quarter as a trend and a higher assertiveness when we do this on an annual basis. Thank you very much.
And now the Q and A session. I would like to turn the floor back to Mr. Gustavo Estrella for his final remarks. Well, once again, thank you very much for being with us in this call. CPFLI had a very important year of wonderful results, all time highs for the company in terms of EBITDA, net income, consistent production and consistent improvement in our leverage.
This was a year where we had we're again a listed company with a relevance in the stock market. So this year was a year where we prepared ourselves to face the upcoming challenges. So as we see the market for 2020, we have a continuous expectation to have lower interest rates, recovery in our economy. And so we do expect to maintain the results just as we had them in 2019. We are also preparing ourselves for investments plan.
Pan has showed us that the company's expectation is to have investments in BRL 3,000,000,000 of BRL 3,000,000,000. Our planning cycle is of 5 years. That corresponds to investments of over BRL 13,000,000,000. So we are also working on distribution. We are going to increase our grid, improve quality, expand growth.
This is the idea, and that's how we expect it to be working over 2020. Once again, thank you very much, and have a good afternoon. The conference call for CPFL Energia has ended. Thank you very much for your participation, and have a nice afternoon.