This event is being carried out in Portuguese and translated into English. If you'd like to listen to the translation, click on the interpretation button on the lower part of your screen. We have with us today our CEO, Octavio Lopes, who will make his opening remarks, and our CFO, Eduardo Botelho, who will make some comments on our results. This presentation is available for download on our investor relations website, but you can also watch it here on Zoom. I'd like to remind you that right now all participants are connected in listen-only mode. After the presentation, during the Q&A session, I'll give further instructions for those of you who wish to ask a question. This webinar is being recorded and will be available on our investor relations website. As per usual, this is our disclaimer.
We'd like to clarify that any statements made during this presentation about the company's business perspectives, projections, operational and financial goals are beliefs and assumptions from the company's directors based on the information we currently have available. Remarks about the future are not a guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. They refer to events in the future, which therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not come to pass. Investors should understand that the general economy, industry conditions, and other operational factors may affect the company's future results and may lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. Well, after that disclaimer, I'd like to pass it over to Octavio Lopes. Go ahead, Octavio.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure to join you for my first conference call officially as a CEO for Light. Since I arrived, we've potentialized a transformation process to give speed and efficiency to the company. Our aim is to make Light a company that is less bureaucratic and more assertive. Therefore, we have remodeled our board of directors, and we've brought in professionals that we believe are able to face our challenges. In the last 45 days, Denise Juarez, a very experienced executive in transformation processes, who has worked for Ambev, Comlurb here in Rio, and Ambipar, who had been in our board since April 2021, became the Director of People and Supply. Fabio Barbosa, who was with me in founding Equatorial Energia in Maranhão, started leading our information technology and digital transformation area. Eduardo Botelho, who is along with us in this call, became CFO.
He is very experienced and we're working together. We have worked together in Magnesita and the creation of HR in Magnesita. Last week we finished it. We concluded it, the team with Alexandre Nogueira, who is the Director of Institutional Relations. Many of you know Alexandre Nogueira Ferreira, who has had a 20-year experience leading regulations. Our new directors are joining Thiago Freire Guth, who will now be the leader for the distribution operation. Alessandra Marão, who runs generation and commercialization, and Deborah Brasil, who is still the Head of Legal. Light, as you know, is a 100-year-old company which still has some old processes and that has some specificities in its concession area, which everyone knows.
We have a team focused on the turnaround we need for the company's long-term sustainability, so we are resetting our investments, analyzing what worked in 2022, and reviewing what needs to be improved to reach our goals. At first, our efforts are focused in allocating capital, balancing return on invested capital, and returns on cash as soon as possible. Our commitment is to reach better operational results and a more appropriate cash flow to the company's reality. For example, although we are combating losses among our priorities, criteria on return on investment and cash generation will be essential to adapt our loss plan to be implemented ahead. We are implementing a strong cost management process. We will have the first zero-based budget until the end of the year, maintaining our excellence.
We are also focused on a regulatory strategy to guide the company during the concession renewal processes, which will begin in mid 2023. We believe that talking to regulators will allow us to reach balance in our concession contract, capturing the challenges in our operation and ensuring our renewal, generating value to our shareholders. ANEEL recognizes that the adversities faced by Light and its 31 municipalities are unique and have a significant impact in the distribution company's financial results. There's another point that is a part of our short-term agenda, which is managing active and passive contingencies in the company, assets and liabilities. This is related to Light's path, but it's important for the company's future context. Our new management has a not so simple task of repositioning the company in our industry.
We have to build a firm basis that will create stability and allow returns to our investors. We have a challenging scenario, but we need to go through these changes to make Light a financially victorious company. Continue to be protagonists in the Brazilian market. After this introduction, I'll pass it over to Eduardo Botelho, who's going to talk about the results for this quarter.
Thank you, Octavio Lopes. First of all, good afternoon, everyone. To start this explanation of our results in this, the third quarter of 2022, we'll start by discussing the billed market on slide four. We can see that the total billed market was 5,820 gigawatt-hours, up 2% and 116 gigawatt-hours versus the same quarter last year.
This variation was made of a reduction of 140 GW in captive clients and a growth of 255 GWh in clients classified as network use, including the free market clients, concessionaires and distributed generation. When we look at the variation on the right, we see that the biggest variation was utility companies, 123 GWh. Looking at our load, it was 6.6% lower with a 2% bigger market. On the next slide, we can see that the consequence of these two variations led to these loss indicators, a reduction in the number of losses and in the total losses per grid load indicator.
Total losses ex REN totaled 9,066 GWh, 1.7% below what was recorded in the second quarter of 2022. Our positive movement is due to two factors, the temperature variation between the quarters, which justifies 80 gigawatt-hours from this reduction, and the results of the energy recovery activities, which contributed with 75 GWh in this reduction. On the right-hand side graph, we can see that the total losses ex REN indicators was 26.63%, down 0.43 percentage points versus June. Also, as Octavio said, we're reviewing our loss combat plan for 2023, considering better capital allocation and a payback. With slide six, collections. You can see that our collection rate was 96.3% in September, down 0.5 percentage points.
Collections, as we can see on the graph, are more pressured by retail, and this is a consequence of the current economic scenario in our distributor concession area. We currently have over 700,000 clients in the low-income bracket, a growth of 182,000 versus September 2021. To the right, we can see the ADA per gross revenue index, which reached 1.9%. In BRL, our ADA was BRL 109 million versus BRL 254 million in the third quarter of 2021. On slide 7, we'll see the results for the third quarter of 2022. We had a recurring Adjusted EBITDA of BRL 508 million versus BRL 453 million in the third quarter of 2021.
EBITDA grew in the distribution company and in generation. In distribution, our EBITDA was BRL 351 million, 68 above the third quarter of 2021. This is due to the installment and the reduction in losses due to the tariff review in March. We also had reduced losses, which in the last twelve months was nearly 0.5 percentage points lower and a lower ADA. In generation, our EBITDA was BRL 160 million this quarter, 58 higher than the third quarter of 2021. This is also due to lower energy purchase costs and better hydrological conditions that we saw this year. In the trading company, our EBITDA was BRL 18.5 million versus BRL 14 million in the third quarter of 2021 due to lower traded volumes. Slide eight shows the company's net results.
In the third quarter of 2022, our recurring results was eight million versus a loss of 149 million in the third quarter of 2021. This is due to a higher EBITDA in the distribution and generation companies and a better financial result. The variation in the tax line is explained by a non-recurring line of 539 million in the third quarter of 2021 due to a legal ruling on taxes overpaid. On the next slide, we can see how our leverage improved and how our cash position is robust. This quarter, the net debt to EBITDA indicator for a debt covenant was down to three times. As a reminder, the limit in most of our debt contracts is 3.75 x.
This increase in BRL 200 million in net debt is due to higher investments made during this period. This concludes this session, and I will now pass it over to Rodrigo Vilela, who will organize the Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you, Eduardo Botelho. We will now begin the questions and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, you can raise your hand by clicking on the Raise Hand button on the lower part of the screen, and your microphone will be turned on. You can also send your questions in writing through the Q&A button also on the lower dashboard. Your questions will be read live and answered. I'll pass it over to Marcelo Sá from Itaú BBA. Marcelo, go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking this call. I'd like to understand the company's future strategy. As you mentioned, there was some cash spent this quarter. A part of it is because the company had high CapEx, but we know that there is a concession renewal process that will be under discussion. It expires in the next few years, and right now cash is quite negative. I'd just like to understand if you have any idea about reducing your CapEx for the next years so that this is a cash generating operation. How do you see these investments? Thank you.
Hi, Marcelo Sá. This is Octavio. Thank you for your question. First, let me make a disclaimer. I still haven't been in the company for three months. Eduardo Botelho has been in the company for three weeks. It would be wrong to give a definitive strategy position right now.
With that being said, two things are very clear to us right now. First, the company needs to take into account in defining its strategy for the next years, the fact that we will have our concession renewed in 2026. I can tell you that that will be taken into account. Secondly, as I said in my introduction, we believe that the company should prioritize, of course, without compromising the quality of its services and its regulatory requirements. It should prioritize cash generation on the short run. This is what we're following. We're trying to go in that direction, finding balance in capital allocation and balance in how we allocate the company's resources to prioritize short-term cash generation and a better payback.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you, Marcelo.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please use the Raise Hand button on the lower part of your screen, or you can use the Q&A button as well. One of the questions that we received was sent by Joana Freire, and she's asking about the funding strategy for the repurchase program.
Thank you. I think there are three important aspects here to answer your question. First, the repurchase from the Light S.A. company that has a very relevant cash position. That's the first thing. Secondly, it can be up to 10%. It will not necessarily be 10%. I think the third point is that if it happens, it will happen throughout 18 months. I think we can even mention a fourth point here.
We understand that the company has relevant cash generation potential in the future, but repurchase will definitely take into account the operational cash flow of our subsidiaries. One of the questions we got in the Q&A asks about details on the concession renewal calendar. Thank you for your question. We have two dates. 2026 will be the renewal date for the distribution company, and we have 2028 in which we will renew the concession for the generation companies. Renewal rules for distribution companies and for generation companies have not yet been defined. We hope that this will take place in the next weeks or months. As for a calendar, the two dates that we have confirmed is that we will need to manifest in a non-binding way by March 2023.
Three years after the renewal date. This is non-binding. They will have 18 months after our statement. That is the last 18 months before the renewal date to state its conditions for renewal.
Continuing, we'll hear from Mario Roberto from Safra. Mario, go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. If you could give us an update about the PIS/COFINS credits. Thank you.
Thank you, Mario. It's a pleasure to have you. This is Octavio again, so I'll answer in detail. As everyone knows, I believe, the 14.385 Act was passed in July, which returned credits to consumers through tariffs. ANEEL proposed an extraordinary tariff review for Light to implement this readjustment. We questioned the fact that there was no public hearing for this.
Because of that, ANEEL made a new request, opened a public hearing, which will take place at the end of this month of November. If ANEEL continues with this public hearing, it is likely that after the 28th, ANEEL will determine that these credits should be returned. If it continues to use the same basis that it used when it proposed the RTE in July this year, it will be returned through Light about BRL 70 million per month. We would receive about BRL 70 million less in tariffs every month. As everyone knows, Light believes that this is unconstitutional. We do not agree with the retroactive application of this credit return, and we're still seeking legal ways of preventing this RTE from occurring. Of course, no guarantees can be made about that.
Thank you.
Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you all for listening. I'd like to underscore that the investor relations team is always available to answer any questions you may have. Have a great afternoon, and we'll see you next time.