Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the conference call for the earnings release of the first quarter of 2020 of Energisa. We would like to inform you that our participants will be in listen-only mode during the presentation. Next will follow the Q&A session, and further instructions will be then given. Should you need any assistance during the conference, please request the operator's help by pressing star zero. We would also like to inform that the conference call will be held in Portuguese by the company's management, and the English conference will be provided by simultaneous translation. This event is also being broadcast simultaneously on the internet via webcast. I would like now to turn the conference over to Mr. Ricardo Botelho. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone.
I would like to thank you for participating in our conference call for the earnings release of the first quarter of 2020. I have here with me, Maurício Botelho, Investor IR and VP of Finance, Gioreli de Souza , VP of Distribution, Alexandre Ferreira, VP of Regulatory Affairs, Daniele Araújo, VP of People and Management, Fernando Mayer, Regulatory Affairs Officer, Antonio Carlos Silva, our new CFO, and finally, our team of investor relations. I'm going to start my presentation by describing our actions and the contingency plan for the pandemic, something which has impacted strongly our country and has had its impact on the company. In addition, to mention some subsequent events. From slides five to seven, I'll present to you our satisfactory results of operating improvement of the quarter, and also describe the health and safety .
Maurício, our Investor Relations Officer and Financial VP, will speak from slides 8 to 12, making the financial highlights, investments, and the advances we've had in the area of transmission. Next, we are going to open for our Q&A session. I'm going to start, as you can see on slide three. As a response to this situation of crisis, we created a governance committee of the crisis so that we could make our strategic decisions involving the top management of the company and creating a number of topics that are part of our contingency plan, which had to be expanded. Our routine was modified because today we have two weekly meetings for checkpointing, where we cover all the topics with the top management of the company. These workgroups are focused on society, people, and our businesses.
Focusing on society and the community, we prioritize relief actions, social movement actions involving also cultural and economic issues, interacting with the communities where we are based. We've prioritized reliability of electrical energy services for critical areas such as hospitals and medical centers, and the population in general. We've started the movement Energia do Bem, Good Energy, which is a set of measures that you can check in our portal, Movimento Energia do Bem. I'm very proud of the solidarity work that we've been performing in this moment of difficulty. We've been providing platforms of access to culture, professional capacity building to young people, social initiatives to support the elderly, also guidance for healthcare, donation of mechanical ventilators and surgical masks to hospitals. We've been providing support in electrical energy installation of some emergency department units. We've been donating food, been encouraging donation by our own staff members.
Each BRL 1.00, which is donated by the staff member, Energisa doubles the same amount in the real. A number of other actions that really make a difference in the day-to-day practice of our community. Focus on people. It has always been one of our priorities, and it has gained even more attention, especially in the safety and protection of our staff and maintaining our work positions. We have to bear in mind that a significant number of our staff members are out in the streets to make sure that everyone else is kept at home. I would like to show our gratitude and pay really a tribute to the great contribution they've made to the country.
As part of the contingency plan, which was activated at the beginning of March, we have adopted actions to maintain the critical activities of the company, primarily in resetting our operation centers in many different sites, in allocating 2,000 people to work from home, promoting greater social distancing in all the activities that had to be done on-site. We also have health teleconsultations, which is one of the measures for protection and care that we have offered to staff members and their family members, those that need any kind of health support related to COVID-19 infection. We've suspended all trips except for those which are absolutely required because of service needs. We have reinforced housekeeping. We have provided protection gear to all staff, changed our routines of cleaning the cars, et cetera. We have applied everything which is recommended as general guidance according to the World Health Organization.
In life-critical areas of essential services, Law MP 936 was applied for 90 days. The main purpose was to reduce expenses during difficult times and also to avoid laying off people without compromising the net compensation of our employees. The compensation of our executives and board members have been cut by 25% during the same period. Finally, but not least important, focus on businesses. We have worked in different fronts to minimize the effects of the crisis in our economic financial balance of the group, without which it wouldn't be possible to carry on with our operations, which employ over 14,000 of our own employees and 6,000 outsourced employees. Among the implemented measures, we have been reducing management expenses between 7% and 12% compared over the previous year. We have renegotiated 80% of our debt that were due in the short term.
We have postponed investments which were expected for 2020 amounting to BRL 567 million . We've maintained the deadlines of our ongoing projects for distribution and transmission projects as determined by contract, but really working hard so that we can even anticipate the deliverables. These measures were required to sustain our business and mitigate loss of cash resulting from margin drop and delinquency. In slide four, I would like to highlight some economic and financial effects of this crisis, at least as a preliminary basis, such as increase in delinquency in April, measured by the indicator of now in a movable average of 30 days, which on April 30th amounted to 7.3%. This is a number that varies widely. It reached a maximum of 16% throughout the month of April. All of that compares to our historical average of 1.6%, which is the period between January 2019 to February 2020.
The metric that I have just described is exactly the same metric that has been used by ANEEL. There has also been a reduction in consumption of energy at Energisa by 6.3% in April, over 13% in Brazil. I would also like to say that we have ongoing negotiations, as you know, together with ANEEL and Ministry of Energy, to maintain the flow of payment of electrical service by creating regulatory assets, which will serve as a buffer to fund the operation of CCEE and then the distribution through CDE. In April, distributors have already received all the surplus of the reserve energy account, called CONER, considering the last account made. Referring to it, Energisa has received a total of BRL 131 million in April. Carry on. ANEEL had a tariff readjustment of three concessions, and it has authorized postponement of the price readjustment to July 1st, 2020.
At the same time, we have to have monthly depositions of CDE of the amount that would be applicable to the same price adjustment. To conclude this slide, it's important to mention that on April 28th, we suffered a cyberattack in our computing system with immediate reaction by the company. For precaution, we temporarily shut off some systems but maintained the continuity of our operations and all its components. Our systems of supervision and control of electrical systems were not affected during any moment. We've already resumed 100% of our main systems without an indication of data loss, nor leaks of commercial or third-party data. There has been no impact on our billing processes. We have already adopted a number of measures against this criminal invasion, and we have reinforced our safety systems and are running an investigation right now. Now let's go into slide five.
I would like to highlight that for the fourth consecutive year, we've shown market growth in the first quarter of the year. The performance in 2020 was positive by 2.5% over the reduction of 4.9% that Brazil experienced. Our results compared to the country may be explained by regional diversity and the presence that we have in very dynamic regions of the country. In this quarter, we highlight the month of March, plus 4.1%, with the highest growth since 2014, which was 4.9% at that time, despite the effects of COVID-19 crisis in the second portion of the month of March. Had it been for it would certainly be a record month.
All classes group in March except, in the quarter, better saying, except for industrial clients, which experienced 0.4% reduction, and household clients that had greater growth and better performance since 2012, plus 8.2% in the first quarter 2019 and 9.4%, which was the case in 2012. As you can see in the chart, our four concessions, Acre, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, and Paraíba, had a positive effect of high temperature rates and also the calendar effect. The concessions of Mato Grosso and Paraíba have been showing a good performance thanks to agri business. Conversely, owing to weather effects and lower temperature and higher rainfall index, concessions of Nova Friburgo and Minas Gerais have presented reduction in consumption. Energisa Sergipe, it has been affected by the exclusion of a large industrial client in June 2019, with a reduction of 3.4% in the total consumption of this market.
The distributors that contributed the most to the growth of the market in the group were Mato Grosso, 55% share, Paraíba, 26% share, and Rondônia, 19% share. The categories that had greater share in market growth were urban household and rural household, with 73% and 23% respectively. Moving on to slide six. We have total losses of the group, which have proved to be stable for the past five quarters. In March 2020, our losses amounted to 13.62% of the total injected energy, somewhat above the regulatory loss of 13.06%. If we exclude Energisa Rondônia, a distributor with a greater deviation in terms of reference, the losses would have been 11.60%, 0.19 percentage points below the regulatory number of 11.82%. Out of the total of 11 distributors, only three are above the regulatory goal, Minas Gerais, Paraíba, and Rondônia.
For Minas Gerais, total loss was 10.06%, a small deviation from the regulatory goal of 9.64%, which indicates non-technical losses, which are more preponderant in this concession. Paraíba is currently above its regulatory goal of 0.43%, but it does present a reduction in total percentage loss over December 2019. The reversion of the trend of growth of losses in 2019 resulted from the actions that we have adopted to fight against losses in critical areas, showing more assertiveness. In Rondônia, our concession still has a relevant deviation from its regulatory goal, with greater impact on non-technical losses. Since the beginning of 2019, the company has adopted the plan of measures associated with capacity building, reinforcing the teams, which have contributed to the change in this journey since the third quarter last year.
Concerning the other eight concessions, which have presented better performance than regulatory goal, we would like to highlight Mato Grosso because it presented losses below the regulatory limit for the third consecutive quarter. The next slide seven. We can see the results of quality of services. The first quarter in 20 was exceptional in terms of quality of service. All our distributors, except for Rondônia, presented the quality indicators SAIDI and SAIFI below regulatory limits, and five of these companies have presented in this quarter the best historical performance. ANEEL published in April IDG ranking referring to 2019. IDG indicator measures the relative performance of quality considering the regulatory goals. Energisa classified six of its company among the top 10 in the ranking of large-sized companies. This consistent operational performance results from appropriate allocation of investments throughout the years. I guess I'll have to reconnect.
Can you hear me now? We can hear you now. We were just close to the end of the slide. Just tell me where to resume. Last paragraph. You can go to slide eight. You were coming close to the completion of the slide. I apologize. We had a technical problem. I don't know exactly how far you heard me. I was talking about slide seven, where we talked about the quality of service. Let's see if you can hear me. I can hear you. Let's see if you can hear me. Yes. Now we can hear you back. Yes, absolutely. I'm using my mobile phone here. I was just talking about the last slide seven. Performance of quality of service. All our distributors, except for Rondônia, presented the quality indicators below regulatory limits, five of which presented their best historical performance ever.
I was just saying that ANEEL in April published IDG ranking referring to 2019. The indicator measures performance and quality according to regulatory goals. Energisa got six of its company among the top 10 rankings, including the advanced-sized company. It means we've been making investments for the recent years and a number of actions focused on improving these indicators. This was the last slide. Now I'm going to hand it over to Maurício.
Good afternoon, everyone. We apologize for the technical problem. Now let's see slide eight. Here on the left, we have manageable costs of PMSO in the first quarter 2020, amounting to BRL 648 million, with 3.8% increase over the first quarter in 2019. Aligned with the inflation rate IPCA 2019, which was 3.30%, but still below IGP-M, which was 6.82%.
This increase of BRL 24 million in PMSO is basically explained by expenses made with maintenance to improve our quality indicators. Our personnel expenses had 5.1% decrease, translated into BRL 17.4 million, partially compensating the increase of other expenses. On the right of the chart, we can see accounting EBITDA. In this quarter, there was a growth of 3.5% over the first quarter 2019. If we exclude non-recurring effects of both quarters, we would have growth of 11.6%, or equivalent to a growth of Parcela B of BRL 111.7 million. Let's now see slide nine. Slide nine, we can see company's profit. The profit of the quarter increased 352% over the first quarter 2019, variation of BRL 153 million, which portrays primarily mark-to-market of subscription bonus, which in this quarter showed a positive result of BRL 141 million, with a negative effect in the first quarter 2019 of BRL 118 million.
If we exclude the mark-to-market effect and some non-recurring events of lesser relevance, the net profit of the quarter would be BRL 150.6 million, and a reduction of 19.7%, or BRL 36.4 million of difference period over period. It's important to emphasize that here on the financial results, we had some additional expenses, such as effects on financial operations due to additional resources that we had to obtain from the market to face the pandemic. Also lower profitability of financial investments due to the decrease in the interest rates. Net indebtedness deduced from sector credit in the quarter amounted to BRL 13.7 billion, with increase of BRL 21.9 million over December 2019. The average term of the net debt is 5.3 years, average cost of 6.18%, a reduction of 0.42 percentage point over 6.60% in December 2019. Our main index is CDI, which represents 72% of our debt.
In terms of net debt over EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA as leverage, we finished the quarter 3.5x over 3.6x the end of last quarter. BRL 1.2 billion was used to reinforce working capital, and the remaining portion was used for postponing the deadlines to 2020, 2021, and part of it in 2023. This initiative focused on reinforcing our liquidity position of Grupo Energisa, anticipating difficulties that would come from the pandemic. This is why in March, we have very robust cash amounting to BRL 4.2 billion, with an increase of BRL 1.2 billion over December 2019. Slide 10. We can see the investments of the group totaling BRL 714 million, growth of 31% over the first quarter 2019.
Out of the total, the segment of distribution absorbed 89%, and transmission had 10% of it used. BRL 69 million this quarter over BRL 50 million last quarter. Slide 11, we can see our plan of investment for 2020 fully reviewed. We can see the reduction pointed out by Ricardo of BRL 567 million to protect our cash position considering the moment of crisis. We've maintained our plan of essential investments to maintain and to have continuity of our operations. It's important to point out that out of the total reduced amount, 65% concerns special obligations. The estimates of investments were reviewed, amounting to BRL 2.4 billion, which are still very relevant to our group. 85% of this amount will be concentrated on distributors and 13% on transmission operations. Slide 12, concerning transmission. Energisa Goiás with 136 km, which was obtained in the auction in April 2017.
This is the energy on March 15 this year. 17 months in advance. This project will have an annual permitted revenue of BRL 40.7 million. There are still three more projects, Energisa Pará I, which started its construction in 2018, with a physical advance of 83%. We have Energisa Pará II. It was something that we got in an auction in June 2018, and we have covered already 30% of the schedule. Energisa Tocantins Transmissora, purchased in December 2018, with a coverage of 12% of the plan. We had some interruptions of construction due to COVID-19 because of some specific cases of obstruction, but we have been successfully negotiating on a case-to-case basis. Concerning the schedule, we are confident that despite minor interruptions, we are not going to affect any of our anticipated delivery plans.
Together, these four projects amount to permitted annual revenue of approximately BRL 193 million and estimated CapEx of BRL 1.6 billion. Since the beginning of the constructions of transmission lines from 2017 up to March this year, we have already invested BRL 323 million, to which BRL 245 million were invested at Energisa Goiás. With this, I conclude my presentation. I will be glad to answer your questions. Operator, please.
Thank you. We are now going to start our Q&A session. If you have any questions, please type star one. If your question is answered, you can remove it from the waiting line by pressing star two. Questions will be answered on a first come, first answered basis. Please remove the hashtag from the phone when asking your question so that we can obtain better audio quality. Please wait while we collect the questions. Carolina Carneiro for Credit Suisse has a question. Please.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the call. I have two questions. First, would you please make some comments about the following: In the first quarter, we've seen good volume of operations in your concessions. Provisions for delinquency has gone up, but still not much affected by the crisis yet. I would like you to share with us some more details about the progression in April and beginning of May. What have you been observing in terms of delinquency in your concessions? Secondly, we would like to ask you to tell us something about the COVID account, especially two points. Some news saying that maybe companies will have to pay for part of the financial cost resulting from the loans that have been made.
We've heard some news that there might be some additional requirements should the companies accept to use the resources, so then they wouldn't be free to ask for any competitions later. I'd like to hear your take on this.
Thank you very much. Carolina, this is Maurício speaking. Let me share my answer here with colleagues here. In terms of load, there was a decrease in April of 6.3% over the load of the national system, just so to have an idea about our drop. Concerning regulatory affairs, I would like to ask Ricardo and Alexandre to help me answer. How are we doing with our discussions with the Ministry of Mines and Energy and ANEEL? Can you all hear me? Yes. I'm going to start, and then Alexandre can complement.
Good afternoon, Carolina. I'm going to start with the second question about asking the use of MPs a nd something along those lines. Well, it does not exist. Nothing will be done throughout this crisis because of COVID. Everyone can still order an RTE to rebalance the parcel of the distributor. There is no correlation there whatsoever. What we cannot find are objective criteria, though. It's been just an ANEEL resolution where all the requests of economic repassing can be submitted, and distributors will have to confirm there has been an imbalance. Everything will be done once we know of the permanent impact. We've already been suffering the impact, once we know the permanent impact we've had, we will be able to request that according to the criteria that have been set by the agency. There is no prohibition of asking for rebalancing.
That is part of concession contracts and also according to the regulations of operation. We would just have to have specific criteria by cases, which will be provided by the regulatory agency. Concerning financial costs, I'll ask Alexandre to help me. At first, all costs through COVID should be on consumers. Consumers should be responsible for paying them. What we have to see is, if you have got an amount higher than what had been required to have your immediate liquidity, and if these resources are additional cost, may be transferred to the distributor. If there were anything in excess to what is your parcel, this is how I see it. Right now, consumers are responsible for covering it.
As Ricardo has pointed out, Carolina, this is Alexandre. The cost would be spread cost. This is all going to be still discussed. We really don't know how the process will be held. We still have to work on having the regulations.
Great. Thank you very much. Thank you for your answers.
The next question comes from Marcelo Sá, from Itaú. Marcelo, please.
Good afternoon, Marcelo. The technique has had a number of possibilities, and it has a broader reach and different solutions. COVID account is a very short-term solution. We have to come up with different mechanisms for the short and medium term or be doing it. This is our interpretation. There is a menu of options, but right now we're just thinking about it as a very short-term solution, which is the COVID account.
Great. Thank you.
Let me remind you that to ask a question, please press star one. To ask a question, please press star one. Please hold while we collect the questions.
If there are no further questions, I would like now to hand it over to Maurício Botelho for his closing remarks. Thank you all very much for being with us during the conference call. Thank you. Stay safe. We'll carry on paying close attention and focusing on doing our best to deal with COVID. Thank you all very much, and have a nice afternoon. Thank you. The conference call for the earnings release of Energisa is finished now. Thank you. You may disconnect now.