Good morning, and thank you for attending. Welcome to Equatorial Energia, to announce the results of the Q2 of 2023. Today here with us, we have Mr. Augusto Miranda, CEO, Leonardo Lucas, CFO, Cristiano Logrado, Regulations Director, Tatiana Vasques, Investor Relations, and Tinn CEO of Echoenergia. All these people are available, and will be happy to meet with you during the conference presentation. We are going to come to the questions and answer session, where further instructions will be provided. Any of you need any assistance during this conference call, please request by pressing star zero. The conference call is also being automatically muted on it, and can be accessed at www.equatorialenergia.com, where the slide deck is available. Slide selection should be controlled by you. The replay of this conference call will be available right after it.
Now remind participants, you can ask your questions on the website. These questions will be answered at the conference end. Before continuing, we would like to clarify the statement made during this conference call. We are not saying to Equatorial Energia S.A. in this aspect. Operational and financial projections, and goals are the beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, and they are based on information currently available to Equatorial Energia S.A. Our look is based on our view of performance. They involve uncertainties and assumptions, which are required to future events, and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors and analysts should understand that general economic conditions, industry-specific conditions, and other operational factors may affect the future performance of Equatorial Energia S.A. Indeed, the results may be materially different from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.
Now, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Augusto Miranda, who's going to start the presentation. Please, Mr. Miranda, you may start.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you very much. We'll be sharing the results of the Q2 of 2023 of Equatorial Energia. We start that the Q2 was strong performance in the distribution segment, following the evolution of operation and loss fighting indicators. The Q1 sees the continued turnaround process in addition to the in the mobile segment and the construction of a solar generation pipeline. We upgrade to the operational improvement in the quarter. It is important to note in the results presented, that we continue the deleveraging trajectory group, creating the results of the capital discipline present in our DNA. Mention, that since the Q1, we have been consolidating Equatorial Goiás, and therefore, we're not considered of last year, on the same part of 2020.
Starting with the information of light in terms of energy, which in, in a consolidated vision, grew 7% in year-on comparison. This growth is on an adjusted basis, already considering Q2 2022 formal data from Equatorial Goiás. A significant result we have in the execution of the strategy process, which resulted a consolidated level of 18.6, a reduction of 1.5. Another factor that also contributed to market expansion is the quality. Observe the quality indicators, accumulated a view, represented in our lines of our performance, 1 to 1922. When that Equatorial reduced by 12.5 hours compared to the Q2, demonstrating our ability to deliver results to the challenges.
In the energy segment, light is the volume of energy generated, 6% higher than the same period 2, better than, we reached BRL 2 billion in the quarter, 44% higher than Q2, capturing the consolidation of the-
Advancement of Echoenergia Solar Pipeline. Still, we ended the quarter with a 0.1 times reduction in the net debt over EBITDA ratio this quarter, totaling 3.8 times in the covenants view, in a consecutive, second consecutive quarter of reduction since the consolidation of Goiás. I'll give the floor to Leo to talk about slide five. Leo, the floor is yours, please.
Thank you very much, Augusto. Good morning to everyone. I will talk briefly about the economic and financial performance of the group in a consolidated view. Here, the numbers are adjusted for non-recurring effects and for non-cash effects, such as VNR in the distribution companies, IFRS for transmission, and MTM for marketing. Our consolidated gross margin grew 46% compared to the Q2 of 2022.
The growth is mainly related to the good performance of the distribution segment, driven by the growth of the tariff market mix, along with reduction in losses, in addition to the consolidation effect of new assets, especially Equatorial Goiás, which added BRL 561 million to the margin of the quarter. The organic growth of the gross margin, excluding new assets, was 17%. In the same concept, meaning disregarding new assets, the adjusted PMSO had an adjustment of about 3% if we compare quarter to quarter. This reduction reflects our cost discipline, especially in the distribution segment, which grew below the accumulated inflation. The reported EBITDA for the quarter reached BRL 2.4 billion, 44% higher than the same period in the previous year.
Adjusting for non-recurring and non-cash effects, EBITDA reached BRL 2.2 billion, again, 44% higher than in Q2 2022, which is equivalent to BRL 663 million. The growth is strongly influenced by distribution assets, which is in an ex-Goiás view, added BRL 423 million on the quarter, reflecting the tariff effect, the increase in the market and advance of the front of combating losses. In addition, the consolidation of Equatorial Goiás in the quarter added BRL 213 billion. Moving to the next slide. Here on slide 6, we are showing information about the company's investments and debt.
In the quarter, we had a significant volume of investments totaling BRL 2.7 billion, and this amount is driven by the proximity or the closeness of tariff events, and for the focus on strengthening the network, improving the quality, reducing losses, in addition to the progress in the execution of Echoenergia pipeline, which this quarter reached the amount of BRL 642 million in the development of two solar complexes in the states of Bahia and Piauí. You can see the debt profile of the company. Here you can see the group's net debt level at BRL 34 billion despite the strong volume invested in the quarter.
Leverage, as measured by covenants, was down by 0.1 times, and closing the quarter at 3.8 times, which characterizes the Q2 in a row of reduction, and reinforces our gradual capacity to deleverage, even with a higher volume of investments. We have a robust cash position of BRL 10.2 billion consolidated, which corresponds to 1.8 times our short-term liabilities. It's worth mentioning that in this quarter we exceeded cut dates in three tariff revisions: in Goiás, Piauí, and Amapá, and now only Alagoas is left with a cut date in November.
As a result, the volume of investments in distribution is likely to go down, and as we go through tariff revisions, well, we will be able to record the investments made in the last cycle in our regulatory EBITDA, which will provide a positive contribution to the group's deleveraging trajectory. Moving to slide number eight, we are going to give you details about the distribution segment. Here on slide number eight, where you can have an overview of the operational and commercial performance of our distribution companies. Here, for comparison purposes between quarters, operational data are shown in an adjusted view of the Q2 2022, with the data from Equatorial Goiás.
As you can see in the graph, the injected energy grew 5% between quarters, while distributed energy grew 7%, with a contribution of the generalized reduction of losses in our concessions, which in a consolidated way, went down 1.4 percentage points, with a highlight for the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Amapá, which went down by more than 4 percentage points year-over-year. It is important to note that with the success of our anti-loss initiatives, we closed the quarter at about 0.6 percentage points above the regulatory level. As to the commercial performance, we ended the quarter with a consolidated revenue of 99.3% plus, or rather saying, another strong quarter with high levels and close to 100%.
The PCLD, the consolidated level, remains within the levels we consider reasonable, especially for our highly complex business operations. I would like to highlight the excellent performance of our distribution companies, which for the fourth consecutive quarter, has been presenting consistent reductions in FEC and DEC. Here, the main highlight goes to the significant reduction in Maranhão of 12.5 hours compared to the previous year. Moreover, the state of Amapa, with 9 hours of reduction as compared to Q2 2022, below the regulatory limit. It's also worth mentioning Alagoas, which reduced 7.4 hours. Overall, we see a significant result across our portfolio. It's worth noting that in Goiás, historical indicators were reprocessed at the request of the regulator. In FEC, it's worth mentioning that currently, 5 out of our 7 concessions operate within the regulatory limit.
This is the res-- This result is a consequence of greater robustness of regional structures and the strengthening of initiatives and process improvements implemented over the last quarters, in combination with strong investments. The adjusted PMSO, the growth of 45%, is a result many of the consolidation of Equatorial Goiás, highlighted in the chart to facilitate comparison. Disregarding this effect, adjusted PMSO grew only 1.8%, reinforcing our management capacity and cost discipline, and delivering a PMSO expense lower than the accumulated inflation between periods, despite the ex-Goiás customer base that expanded more than 4% between quarters. In the comparison with adjusted EBITDA, we had a strong growth of 56%, affected by the improvement in the gross margin, influenced by the higher tariff in a period market growth, and also by the consistent reduction of losses.
Now, moving to the next slide, number 10. Here on slide 10, we quickly show the performance of the transmission segment. Altogether, our portfolio currently has an RAP of more than BRL 1.3 billion for the 2023/2024 cycle. In this quarter, the regulatory EBITDA for the transmission segment grew 14%, reaching BRL 316 million, with the benefit mainly from the last tariff adjustment. As you can see on the slide, our transmission operation recorded a consolidated EBITDA in excess of 93%. It's worth mentioning that since July this year, the 2023/2024 cycle in INTESA asset has had a 50% reduction in the original RAP, an amount that is already demonstrated in the build-up chart. It's important to note that this reduction only impacts the original RAP, and therefore does not affect the reinforcement.
Let's take a look at our renewable energy operation. The volume of energy generated grew 6% this quarter as compared to the year before. This performance is due to better availability of wind assets, as demonstrated in the chart showing the average speed of winds. In the quarter, the EBITDA grew 9%, totally BRL 125 million in the period, reflecting better winds. It's important to note that in this quarter, if we compare to last year, we are including the operation of Serra do Mel II complex, which started operating in March 2022. We are going to talk about details of the development of our pipeline of solar projects.
As you can see, we have advanced in the development of Ribeiro Gonçalves and Barreiras 1 complexes, located in the states of Bahia, of Piauí and Bahia, respectively. In the chart on the left, you can see the timeline of the main stages of the of this pipeline. Right now, we are advancing in the line of civil and electrical works in the two complexes, in addition to the transmission lines and connection to the substations, in line with the construction schedule approved for the projects. I remind you, The parks are scheduled to start operating during 2024.
For the development of the pipeline, we reached, in this H1 of the year, the CapEx of BRL 798 million, with BRL 705 million of funding from the 4 Ribeiro Gonçalves Complex, already contracted from BNDES. Of the total funding contracted, BRL 510 million refers to sub credit A, at IPCA rate, plus 7.45% per annum. Lastly, I would like to reinforce that we are advancing in the marketing of energy of the pipeline. In the graph on the right slide, you can see the evolution of the number of customers for future energy in the quarter. A very significant number, which demonstrates our ability to execute the marketing strategy. Today, most of Ribeiro Gonçalves energy is already commercialized.
Another way to demonstrate this evolution is the positive mark-to-market result of energy contracts, which had a net impact in our result of BRL 37 million. This result was driven by sales to end customers, which took place in the Q2, which added more than BRL 55 million to the book value, following the mark-to-market methodology of our operations. Now, moving to slide number 15. At CSA, we completed the 12 months of management of Equatorial in the sanitation segment. In this quarter, we show you a comparison of the expected uncertain, where we see the positive results of the operation. We ended Q2 2023 with approximately 80,000 invoice savings in water supply and advances in the water coverage index of 42% and losses of 62%.
Figure that exceed the estimated for the first year of operation in the BNDES modeling, and demonstrate evolution compared to the previous quarter. This demonstrates the company's good operational performance at this early stage and reinforces our confidence in the opportunities for the segment. Now, I give the floor back to Augusto Miranda for his closing remarks.
Thank you, Leo. I would like to close by summarizing the main messages of our conference call and reinforcing our recent achievements and prospects. First, I would like to draw your attention to the significant performance of the company, reflecting the evolution of current assets and consolidation of new set assets, which led to a growth in the adjusted EBITDA of 44%.
In this sense, the main highlights of the period are related to the contribution of Equatorial Goiás and the consolidated results, increase in gross margin of other distribution companies of the group, combined with an efficient management of operating expenses. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the evolution of quality indicators in general in our operations as a result of the intensification of improvement actions, in addition to loss reduction, which demonstrates the evolution in turnaround processes and also in more mature assets. Investments total BRL 2.7 billion in 2Q23, with emphasis to distribution companies with a tariff revision this year, in addition to the BRL 642 million meant for the development of Echoenergia Solar Generation Project pipeline. These investments are in line with the company's constant focus on value generation.
Another highlight was the capital increase realized from the capitalization of declared dividends, with the amount of BRL 385 million. One of the initiatives mapped out in the manual of shares for leverage management. In this sense, we recently approved the 18-month treasury share disposal program or shares sale program. We hold approximately 29 million in treasury shares acquired during the buyback program approved at the end of 2020. With regard to the prospects for 2023, we continue to advance in improving the quality and reducing losses of our distribution company, with special attention to the evolution of the turnaround in Goiás. Another point is the focus for 2023 in leverage.
In addition, the strong result of the quarter, as perceived by the EBITDA growth, we see a reduction in the future leverage through the tariff review process in advances in turnaround processes, in addition to remaining attentive to opportunities for debt management using the tools available, such as the sale of operations as recently approved. Now I would like to open for questions and answers.
Thank you very much. Now we are going to start our questions and answer session. If you have a question to ask, please press star one on your touch phone. If your question is answered, please press star two to take your question from the list. Questions will be answered as we receive them, and we kindly request you to pick up your headset to ask your question in order to assure optimal audio quality.
Our first question comes from Andre Sampaio, from Santander.
Just a confirmation, as to provisions. This is related to 23, but did not impact consolidated numbers. Anything reversed to equalize it? This is the first question. The second question is related to the sale of shares in treasury. To understand why we are launching these movements right now, do you see any opportunity coming up? These are my two questions.
Thank you very much. First I'm going to answer now. This is one of the options that we have, considering the tool to talk about this. This is-- does not oblige us to do it over again, so that we can assess better. The first question. An elevation of provisions. What exactly are you asking?
I mean an increase of provisions in the Q1. We see the numbers going up from the first to the Q2, but if we look at consolidated numbers, this doesn't seem to be true. Can you understand better? In Goiás, there is a PPA. There are some impacts of processes that had already been mapped in the acquisition, in the consolidation process with Equatorial. This is due to the contingency that we had, that had already been set forth in the PPA. This is non-recurring for Goiás, and likewise, with the consolidation of Equatorial, this had been included in PPA. Well, great. This is very clear. Thank you so much. Our next question comes from Rafael Nagano. Good morning, thank you. I have two questions.
The first one is a follow-up on Andre's question about the opportunity of leverage in terms of sale and in terms of what was presented. You had said that you were analyzing closely this process. There was this process. The second process regards Echoenergia, considering that Ribeiro Gonçalves is already fully contracted, almost. Can you tell us more about average prices and the term of those contracts in terms of time? Rafael, thank you for your question. Obviously, Rafael, the assets that we have in Ceara, but for this special asset, we wouldn't like to talk about it. About Echo, Tinn is going to talk about it. Thank you, Augusto.
Well, Rafael, as to the consumers that we are trying to find for contract portfolios for Ribeiro Gonçalves, it's basically A4 consumers, even A4 that could migrate as of January 2024, and average times, depending on the type of product, between 4 and 5 years. Okay? Ladies and gentlemen, please wait while we wait for Mr. Augusto Miranda's connection.
Our next question comes from Marcelo Sá. Sorry. Our next question is from Marcelo Sá, from Itaú BBA.
Hello, how are you? I have two questions. The first one regarding CapEx. There was a CapEx peak this year, and the distribution CapEx would drop, obviously related to deleveraging. What do you expect for next year? About the PPA for customers.
Could you share with us the price range and anything else related to PPAs that would make sense? Thank you so much.
I am going to start speaking on behalf of Echoenergia. Well, Marcelo, I cannot give you this guidance because this is a price energy of Echo. It's our price strategy. It's something that is limited. All I can tell you that prices have surprised it, especially with the guaranteed energy, which is the product that offer a discount to the customer in terms of the tariff. This price is detached from market prices, and we are intensifying actions to leverage this type of product. Okay? Hi, Marcelo. Thank you for your participation. Thank you for the question. We do not offer a specific CapEx guidance.
Just as a reminder, we worked in February, and we come from the first to the Q2 in Para with a CapEx reduction. In the Q2, we had three bases: Goiás, Piauí and Amapa. There were extraordinary revisions. We've been expecting an ordinary revision. We are keeping an eye at that, and in November, we are going to have a cut of the bases in Alagoas. Obviously, our strategy aims to address CapEx needs as much as possible before the cut. After the cut, as we want to advance those needs, we are expecting a movement of reduction the beginning of the cycle. Obviously, we also need to look at the market dynamics.
The market is very strong, and CapEx is related to that, and also, turnaround companies, with issues related to quality improvement, such as the case of Goiás and Rio Grande do Sul, and losses, too, in Rio Grande do Sul, Amapá. This is the dynamics, but we are not offering any more specific guidance. Well, this is great, Leo. Well, if you have any information on about when you expect your leverage to go down towards the end of next year, then when it's closer to 3 times or even less, what can you tell us about that? Well, the dynamics, we expect to have better results in terms of turnaround with review and this CapEx without a more specific guidance.
Oh, this is great. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Daniel Travitzky from Safra.
Hello, everyone.
Can you hear me? Hi. I have a question, a follow-up about the issue of leverage and the leverage, and I would like to understand which are the alternatives after you close some transactions, such as the one with Itaú, in terms of operational assets, and now, you did the sale in Treasury. What other alternatives can we see in terms of funding, looking into the future in terms of leverage of the company? Alternatively, there's nothing else to be done. How do you see the deleverage process?
Marcelo and Daniel, thank you very much for the question. Daniel, well, you mentioned a few, and there are many other options. As a reminder, there are some mature assets, and this is an alternative. Thank you for your question, Daniel.
In addition, to the operational dynamics that we have just mentioned, there is a non-operational and inorganic dynamics. We have the operation with dividends, and this optionality or this option is now naturally, we receive provocations, so that we might sell an operational asset or bringing some capital into the portfolio, especially in segments that are mature, that are not so capital intensive. We remain very active, thinking and considering the many alternatives that we may have, in addition to the organic alternative of deleveraging. We are very active. We are paying close attention to all alternatives. Okay, thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you want to ask a question, please press star 1. Excuse me. We now close our questions and answer session.
Now, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Augusto Miranda for his closing remarks. Mr. Miranda, please.
Well, in closing, I would like to reinforce once again our commitment to the agenda of continuous value generation that we seek for our investors, from the delivery of consistent results in the various segments where we operate, always, based on disciplined financial management. I would also like to remind you that our investor relations team is available to support you and answer any questions you may have after this webcast. Once again, thank you very much for your interest in our company and for attending our conference call. Have a good afternoon. Thank you.
Equatorial Energia conference call has now ended. We thank you very much for your participation. Have a good day!