Gustavo Estrella, Ms. Kedi, and the other executives of the company. During the presentation, you can use the button "Interpretation" for the channels in English or Portuguese, depending on need. I would also like to tell all participants that at the end of the presentation, we will start the Q&A . All the questions will be made in Portuguese, live, and to request this, all you have to do is to click on the button "Raise Hands,", and this button is in the bottom part of the platform. Remember that this event is being recorded. Now I'm going to give the floor to Gustavo Estrella for us to start the presentation of the results.
Thank you, Cyrino. Good morning. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for being present here in our Results Call of the Fourth Quarter of 2024. I'm now going to go to slide three for the highlights. We delivered in the year an EBITDA of BRL 3 million. In the fourth quarter, BRL 3.276 billion, a growth of 5.3%, so a profit with BRL 1.5 billion, a growth of 18% in relation to last year, and BRL 5.8 billion profit. Our debt, BRL 27 billion, with leveraging of the net debt through over the EBITDA, 2.07%. CapEx, another highlight, expressive growth in relation to last year. In the quarter, a growth of 21%, BRL 1.9 billion, and in the year, we closed with BRL 5.8 billion, basically the number of our guidance in the beginning of last year.
As for the dividends, the proposal that is being forwarded for our meeting is 2.79%, which is a total volume of BRL 3.0 million of dividends, which represents a number a bit over 70% of the payout in relation to the profit of 2024. In relation to business, the Generation segment, an important highlight is the PCH Cherobim conclusion. It started operating in the beginning of January with 28MW of installed capacity. Our ESG Plan 2030, o ne more commitment linked to the climate resilience. It is a topic that, of course, affects our businesses a lot. It's important that the ESG Plan be linked even more with business, and with the moment of the operations of our group. We also have the ISO 56002. It's linked to innovation. It's the first company of the sector with an ISO linked to innovation of the size of the CPFL Group.
We also had an important recognition in the Best Management Award from FNQ for CPFL Santa Cruz and Piratininga, and the Silver trophy for CPFL Paulista. Now, when we go to the next slide, we're going to talk a bit about energy sales. In the fourth quarter, we had the performance with a growth of 1.4%. We have got used to see expressive growth in 2024, especially in the low-tension residential and commercial. This is a bit difficult, a bit different. Residential dropped 1.7% and commercial with flat growth in relation to 2023. I think besides the distributed generation, which affects these two classes, we have the negative effect of temperature, which makes us not have that growth that we had in the prior quarters.
But even so, we can see that in the macro line and others, the two classes continue having a positive performance even without growth because they had a base of consumer, and also due to the temperature in the end of 2023. And we continue with the levels of high consumption in these two classes. An important highlight, industrial with a growth of 4.3%, the industrial sector. We've been observing perhaps in the last two quarters; it's a more robust growth of the industrial class, which confirms itself once more and gives a positive perspective of the continuous uptake of the industry in our areas of concession. When we look at the segments within the industrial class, the food segment, which is the biggest with a growth of 0.5%, we see a very good performance: chemistry, vehicles, rubber, about 7%. Now let's go to the slide of the year.
As I said, residential and commercial, the big highlight is the performance of the growth of over 6% in the two classes. Even though there's the distributed generation, this affects the consumer per capita, obviously, and the temperature, bringing a positive impact. We close the industry with a growth of 3.2%. This is an important number. It's robust and with a positive perspective for 2025. When we look at the different segments, once more, chemicals, rubber, vehicles, these are the main highlights, and the growth is between 3% and 6% for each one of these segments. Well, in the slide six, we can see the performance of the growth without the seasonal effects. In a very stable manner, we can see the growth, which is robust for the residential class. The last two years, this has been a strong growth.
And also in the commercial class, the post-pandemic, post-2020, stable growth, the growth of 5%- 7.5%. The industry, a lot of volatility, 2021, still a reflex of the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. But, we can see the year of 2024 as a positive year, with the industry with growth close to 3% without seasonal effects. And as I said, a positive perspective for 2025. And here we make a correlation of these growths with the GDP. Obviously, we have a large correlation of the GDP with the consumption of energy, which has imbalanced in favor of the increase of the consumption of energy and the effect of temperature bringing more consumption, especially in the low-tension classes. Now let's go to the seventh slide. Distribution delinquency was a big challenge. As you can see, the first three quarters, delinquency with volumes above our historical volumes.
We had during the year some challenges, especially linked to our billing, especially energy cuts because of storms, because of floods in Rio Grande do Sul, and this made us have difficulty to cut, which is how we fight against delinquency. But in the fourth semester, we could, the fourth quarter, and this closed in with 0.9, and we closed with a number higher than 2023, but if we're able to maintain this, the volume of cuts in high levels, then we will be able to control, and we will be able to reduce it in 2025. Now, in slide eight about losses, these is also challenging losses.
Even so, we were able to reduce the volume of losses compared to 2023, reaching 8.28 to concessionaires RGE and Santa Cruz, lower than the regulatory levels, which is a positive number, with challenges a bit lower in Paulista and a big challenge in Piratininga, and the control of losses in these concession areas. In slide nine, there's an important number that has to do with quality. We have a curve of our four distributors, and this is about four hours from São Paulo, an important highlight. Six or seven years ago, it was about 15 hours. Now we're in nine hours of DEC, which is a fruit of a lot of investment in that concession area, exchanging the wooden posts, automation, digitization, which makes us reach positive numbers linked to the DEC.
Another important thing is all the four distributors attend to the limits, the regulatory limits of the DEC. So this is an important data. It's a huge challenge. And I believe that's indicators what has driven our increase in investments in the last few years. And here you see a positive result, not only consolidated numbers, but also the DEC with the electrical set in all the distributors of our group. Now, let's move to slide 10 about Generation performance. Here we can see the PLD in the fourth quarter, which is a fruit of the increase of the price of October last year because of the weaker hydrology. This came back in the month of November, but on average, an expressive increase in relation to the year of 2023. In relation to the GSF, we are the same as 2023 with 90%.
Wind farms, we had a drop in the production of generation of 6%, purged the effects of the curtailment. This has been the big challenge of the Generation in 2024, and possibly this year as well. We would have had growth in the Generation of over 14%. So once more, it's the GSF affecting significantly not only our business of Generation, but also the results of the group's CPFL in a consolidated form. And here it's the availability of our wind with the drop because of the maintenance, some programs, some not, but with the positive perspective of recovering these numbers in 2025. Now, I'm going to give the floor to Ms. Kedi for her to follow with the financial results.
Okay. Thank you, Gustavo, and good morning, everyone. [Foreign language] I'm going to talk about our financial result. [crosstalk] Our EBITDA in the third quarter it was BRL 3.3 billion, a growth of 5.3% over the same quarter of last year, and in the next slide, I'm going to talk about the performance of each section. In the Distribution segment, EBITDA reached a value of BRL 1.9 billion, a decrease of 8.7%, or an amount of BRL 179 million, explained by the reduction in market at tariff. Despite the growth in market volume, we had a negative impact due to the tariff. Adjustment in Parcel B was a negative in Paulista due to the negative IGP-M in the period, and also, we had some effect on Parcel A. The negative impact was offset by several factors.
First one, was concession financial asset with the increase of IPCA, and the second one was a decrease in PMSO and a reduction of private pension plan cost. The next section is Generation segment with an EBITDA that reached BRL 1.1 billion, a 45.4% increase over in amount BRL 346 million. The result was impacted by four one-off effects. The first one is regarding Enercan. It is non-cash effect, referring to the provision resulting from the testing, the recoverable value of the asset. We had a negative effect of BRL 334 million in the fourth quarter of last year and a positive effect of BRL 56 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, which gives us a difference in number in amount of BRL 390 million. The second one is a reversal of liability in total amount of BRL 123 million.
That is also a non-cash effect that is related to the MME ordinance about the small hydrogen plants physical guarantee review, which was first issued in the year of 2015. With a new annual resolution, which was disclosed in 2024. It established a different system to measure a lack of generation, and it favors technical discussion, which made it possible to reverse the provision. And the third one is about a fair value adjustment related to Lajeado investment. That is also a non-cash effect. In the amount of BRL 90 million, it's a total variance from last year, with a negative effect of BRL 40 million in the fourth quarter last year and a positive effect of BRL 50 million in the first quarter of this year. A nd the last one of ADA is the agreement between CPFL and the Pátria Group in the amount of BRL 191 million.
To the end of, with that agreement, we end the consortium early. The recurring performance of the segment, despite a better wind, is given by some negative impact of the curtailment, and the negative impact in the first quarter is BRL 49 million. The next section is Transmission. The regulatory EBITDA reached to BRL 192 million, a drop of BRL 71 million, which is mainly due to a rapid adjustment in the 2024 and 2025 cycle, which was negative due to a tariff revision. Next, we talk about Trading service and other segments. EBITDA in the quarter reached to a total of BRL 80 million, with a decrease of BRL 41 million compared to the same quarter last year, explained by a lower margin in our Trading business.
Amount was negative BRL 89 million, and a one-off effect we have explained in the Generation segment, which was the agreement between CPFL and the Pátria Group, and also the effect of Ordinance 30. We move on to the next slide. Our net income totaled to an amount of BRL 1.6 billion, an increase of 18.7% over the previous year's quarter. In addition to the variation of BRL 165 million in EBITDA, the main effect were the following items, so on a financial result, compared to the same period of last year, we have a gain of BRL 170 million, basically due to a better result of mark-to-market, which was explained by an increase of risk spread curve, and also expenses with the debt due to a decrease in CDI compared to the first quarter of last year. That was offset by an increase of debt and IPCA.
Also, monetary adjustment on tax credit and late payment interest, and funds also contribute to the increase. In the next slide, we have our performance for the year of 2024. Our EBITDA reached to a total of BRL 13.1 billion, an increase of 2.4%, which was mainly due to a Generation segment extraordinary effects, which were offset by the curtailment. In the Distribution segment, we have a 1.8% reduction with the impact of Rio Grande do Sul flood and the increase of ADA. We move on to the next slide. Our net income for the year increased by 4.1%, totaling to the amount of BRL 5.8 billion. The biggest impact was the financial result, which was mainly because of the decrease in MTM.
The amount was BRL 258 million, which was explained by a change in the risk spread curve, which increased last year and decreased in the year of 2024. The mark-to-market is a timing difference, which will be profit-neutral in the whole term of the fund. In this slide, we have the net debt in the covenant criteria. That ended in the year with BRL 27 billion in total. The adjusted EBITDA was BRL 13 billion. So we ended the year with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.07. It is important to remind our investors that our financial covenant criteria is 3.75. So our current coverage leverage remains at a very comfortable level. Regarding dividends, our proposal is a payment of BRL 3.2 billion, equivalent to BRL 2.79 per share, which will be subject to the approval in AGM on April 29th.
Moving to the next slide, we have our debt amortization schedule, which is compared to our cash of BRL 3.5 billion at the end of the year, gave us a net cash coverage of BRL 0.82 for our short-term amortization. Below, we have the debt nominal cost, which is 12.2%, which was mainly affected by the increase of CDI at the end of the year. On the other hand, we show the gross debt profile with most of our debt linked to CDI, actually 81% of the debt linked to CDI, 18% of the debt linked to inflation, and 1% linked to TJLP. Finally, I'd like to highlight the funding, some of the funding operations that we did in last year, which reached to a total amount of BRL 7.7 billion with an average cost of CDI plus 0.2% and an average term of 5.41 years.
I would like to highlight two transactions that we will conclude this year. First, the amount of BRL 800 million from BNDES Innovation Funding for the Smart Metering project, with an average cost of CDI minus 1.42%. That is a very good cost for this important project. And second, the NDB funding, which we are going to sign in March. The estimated cost for this debt will be around CDI minus 0.44%, which we will swap it to CDI. On the next slide is about our CapEx. In 2024, we invested a total of BRL 5.8 billion, which was a 14% more than the previous year. That is in line with our project. In the breakdown of the segment, Distribution segments will reach to a total of BRL 4.5 billion in investment in expansion projects, system improvement, and modernization.
In Generation, we invested a total of BRL 411 million in maintenance plants and farms. And we concluded the construction of Cherobim, the small hydrogen plant. In Transmission, BRL 758 million were invested in reinforcement and improvement of our lines and transmissions. And the next slide, please. Next slide shows our CapEx plan for the next five years, with a total investment of BRL 29.8 billion, in which BRL 24.7 billion will be in Distribution, and BRL 3.7 billion in Transmission, about BRL 1 billion in Generation, and BRL 382 million will be in Trading and other services. So that's our performance. So I'll give the floor back to Gustavo.
Okay. T hank you, Kedi. So now, last slide here. [Foreign language] Let's go to the last slide, which talks about climate change and resilience. I think here's some highlighted of some projects that are going to help our operation a lot. The first one is in Distribution. It's the smart meters. I think this is a project that we've been studying for a long time. We were able to make it feasible the way that it's been doing.
So we're going to start this year with 200,000 smart meters, and the expectation is that this deadline will be at least 1.6% up to 2029 with an investment of BRL 2 billion. I'm sure it's going to bring a positive impact in the perception of quality on the side of our client. In Generation, it's a huge challenge, whether it be the safety of dams, the monitoring of the assets. Today, we have a platform here in Campinas in the Center of Operations to monitor and operate the over 55 dams that we have here in our group.
So with an investment of BRL 10 billion, today we are able to do this in a much more automated and efficient manner than what we did in the past. A nd in Transmission, here we have a research and development project of BRL 6 million using artificial intelligence, so that we can monitor all the area with the transmission lines and so that we can understand if there's some type of problem in the network and do this in the best way possible so that we really can work and avoid any problem on the network.
So these are the three examples of large projects that we have on the table, as I say, very much linked to our operation with our ESG plan. And we know that our biggest challenge today comes from climate change. We lived through this last year, not only in the south with the floods, but here in São Paulo as well. So the expectation is to invest and understand how we can improve our operation, considering a more volatile scenario and uncertain that we have today. We're now going to the session of Q&A .
Thank you, Gustavo. Thank you, Kedi, for your presentations. Let's now move to Q&A . Following the usual, always remember to press the button, raise your hands. We have here a first question. Mário from Safra Bank. Good morning, Mário. You can follow with your question.
Hello, everyone. I would like to understand what you think in relation to the terms of the renewal of concessions of the distributors that were presented by ANEEL this week.
Good morning, Mário. I'm Jairo from Regulatory Topics. There was an evolution when we compared to the public consultation. Some important points were dealt with, for example, the residual timeframe of the contract, the more objective evaluation of the contract, and with a wider scope. So, we think it was an evolution. We're going to carry out an internal evaluation to continue and decide what decisions we're going to take.
Thank you, Mário. Let's move towards the second question. It's João Pedro from Santander Bank. Thank you, João, for your participation. Please go ahead and ask your question.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for accepting and congratulations for the results. I'd like to understand the perspective of 2025, and I'd like to understand how the dialogue with the regulators are, if there's anything new, if there's any important point.
João, thank you for your question. As I said in our presentation, it was a huge impact in our results in 2024. T he loss of results in our vision of BRL 272 in 2024. With the perspective, with no change, very negative for 2025, we continue having more intermittent energy in the system, and the trend is to worsen the curtailment. Today, I think we have two fronts. The first one is a technical front that involves agents, ministry, ANEEL, and NAIC.
So, we had a series of meetings with all these agencies trying together to discuss a way forward and the technical possibilities of what can be done, remembering that, what has been mentioned very correctly, the safety of the system is priority, and I don't believe that any of us will give this up. So, with this premise on the table, to understand what technically is possible to be done, we understand that some things are possible, so that we can minimize, so to speak, the impact of the curtailment. But for a definite solution, definitive solution, I think this moves towards another front, which is a front of public policies. We took a decision as the country to grow our matrix with renewable energy for obvious reasons, due to the Brazil characteristics and the potential. But today, we live with a huge intermittency in the system.
So, how can we solve and maintain the system in general, sustainable long term, whether it be for the investors that already are investing, and that never imagined that they would have any time of curtailment the way that we have today. Last year, I had at some moments of the year thermal with diesel oil being dispatched at the same time that I had wind cuts. So this is the challenge that we will have of a matrix that more and more is renewable, and more and more intermittent. This goes by public policies. So, how to deal with this for investors and the new investments? Today, we have a matrix with an excess offering, but at some moment, we'll need new investments.
And for these new investments, I need an environment that allows me to invest with security in renewable generation using the natural vocation of our country. , So I think this goes through these two pillars. It's two areas where we work a lot, and there are technical issues to solve with short-term impacts, but in a structural manner, we have to discuss this with public policies to deal with the curtailment form definitely and so that we can continue growing with clean and renewable energy.
Thank you very much. Very clear.
Thank you, João. Third question that we have is Luiza from Itaú BBA. Thank you, Luiza, for your participation. You can go ahead and ask a question.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the questions. I just have a follow-up of the first questions that was made about the process of the renewable of the concession. So first of all, I'd like to understand the expectation in relation to timing, when do you expect the signature of this new contract? How do you understand the impact for the next tariff readjustments in the second semester, since this new contract imagines the exchange of the IGP-M for the IPCA?
Good morning, Luiza. The timing following the schedule of the decree, with the maximum timeframe of August. If they decide to sign the contract, it should be signed before t he decree was published. We have then 30 days to manifest ourselves if we're going to do this. Then after we follow the program that is forecasted in the decree. As for the readjustments, there's no specific procedure when there's a contract transition. It will follow the rules that are part of the well-established procedures.
Thank you, Luiza. Just to add, this procedure that he mentioned is, in fact, to do the mean with the IGP-M and IPCA. So, for example, let's see Paulista that's going to have a readjustment in April. It would be from April to the... It would be in 2026. It would be up to August, which is the date of the signature. And afterwards, this from August 2025 to April 2026 IPCA. So, this means will be done until all the companies have 100% of the IPCA.
We don't have more questions at the moment. So, we do have a question. Carol from Safra. Hi, Carol. Go ahead with your question. Thank you for participating.
Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. Just taking the opportunity of the queue. Now that this renewable of concession has gone and we have the rules to remind how things are doing in relation to the capital allocation, rethinking the strategy because the risk for some concessions was relevant. You have visibility of possible investments in the segment, especially to Distribution, and this in the past was in your interest, and also the curtailment of renewable generation, so how is this going? And then going back to the initial question of Mário, there were something about the CapEx revenue, i s there any possibility of this? Is this an interesting regime for concessions such as CPFL and mature concessions that do have any detailing of what this could be, and that ANEEL mentioned in the press release?
Thank you, Carol, for your question. Well, as for capital allocation, I think it's still early for us to talk about the dispatch that came out today, but it's an important step in the line of having a perspective long term in the sector of Distribution, which is very important. We publicized here; we disclosed the CapEx of almost BRL 30 billion and almost BRL 25 billion are in the Distribution. The main prerogative is to have a long-term vision. And we know that these investments, they mature in 10, 20, 30 years.
So it's an important step in the direction of the uptake of this long-term perspective. This helps our operation, helps our planning, and also for our current business, but also looking here for potential opportunities in the market if they show up. So clearly, we are interested in growing in our business. I think in Distribution, our main business, our biggest expertise, and opportunities will be evaluated by our group. And I believe that perhaps the prerequisite for us to do this would be to have a more stable, as we believe that we'll have from now on.
So I think today it's an important step in this direction. When we look at other businesses, we continue looking at transmission with potential opportunities. We're going to have the auction this year with a lower volume than prior years, but we continue analyzing this. And we have a position and a way of working in these auctions, which is much competitive than the last year. We proved this at the last auctions. We're always very close in all the lots where we participate. So we always put Transmission as a form of growth, whether it be via auction or also our CapEx, BRL 4 billion for the next few years, also important investment in Generation. This continues being our challenge. We talked here about the curtailment, and this is in fact the big challenge at the moment when we have an excess of offer that we have today.
And the risk is a totally non-manageable for renewable generation. So it's very difficult for us to be able to have new projects linked to Generation. I would say that today, capital allocation, we have a perspective, a more positive perspective to distribution because of this uptake of the long-term perspective, and for Transmission due to the auctions that are still taking place and the possibility of growth via new investments. I'm going to give the floor to Jairo about the question of renovation. Thank you.
Thank you. Hi, Carol. Good morning. Well, in relation to the model, we expect it would be something similar to revenue Cap. So we can't state a preference model of model one or model two. So we have to wait to see the proposal that ANEEL will present so that we can take a decision in a more definite manner.
Could you please make a follow-up? I'd like a follow-up. This is going to be decided once the rules are disclosed, and then you can take the decision. Is that... Did I understand correctly? There's nothing defined yet.
Exactly, Carol. The forecast would be after the first tariff revision, after the defined rule. This is a change, and then once ANEEL has defined it, we'll have a cycle to take this decision.
Perfectly. Thank you very much, everyone.
Thank you, Carol. Thank you for your participation and your questions. If we don't have any more questions, I'm going to end the session of Q&A , and I'm going to give the floor to Gustavo Estrella for his final consideration, closure, and I wish you all a good afternoon.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in our results call. I think we ended 2024 with robust results, even though we had challenges in the year, whether it be in Generation curtailment, whether it be in Distribution, with these climate changes and the climate events, extreme climate events in São Paulo, and also in Rio Grande do Sul. I think that we show that we have a lot of resilience in our operation, and we are on the right way. The investment that we made brings us results in our operation.
So we continue in the same line, looking forward with more than BRL 30 billion in investment, improving the network, investing in technology. The smart metering will bring a huge impact to our operation with reflexes and the quality for our clients. So I think that we follow with this perspective in a regulatory environment, which is more stable with the advance of the renewal of the concessions. So, we can operate not only our current business the way that they should be operated, but also with potential new opportunities that might show up. So thank you very much. Thank you for your participation, and I wish you all a wonderful afternoon.