Good morning, everyone. We are now starting the video conference for the earnings of Q3 of 2022 of ENGIE Brasil Energia. I'm Rafael Bosio, Investor Relations Manager of the company, and I would like to tell you that people are connected in listen-only mode, but later on, when there will be a Q&A session, you can send them by the Q&A tool in Zoom. This is being recorded. It will be available in our website, www.engie.com.br/investidores, the files of the presentations and earnings release, in addition to quarterly statements, where the details and analysis of financial statements of the quarter, in addition to operating results and advancements in implementation of our projects, among other factors, will be posted.
Before proceeding, I would like to clarify that any statements that may be made during this call regarding the business prospects of the company should be treated as forecasts, depending on the economic conditions of the country, the performance and regulation of the electric industry, in addition to other variables, and therefore are subject to change. Here with me, we have Mr. Eduardo Sattamini, Investor Relations Officer, and Marcelo Malta, CFO of the company, to comment on the performance of ENGIE Brasil Energia in the Q3 of 2022. I remind that the journalists that wish to ask questions may do so by email. Send them to the press advisor department of the company. Mr. Sattamini, you may continue.
Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here for one more quarter after the election, and this first nine months of the year, we're all alive. Let's move on to slide number five of the presentation. First, I would like to talk about the highlights. The adjusted EBITDA in the quarter, when compared to the Q3 of 2021, there was a decrease, but there is an important topic on the right side of the slide, that is the recognition of the GSF amounting to EUR 372 million. If we exclude the GSF, which is a one-off event recognized in this quarter, we would have an EBITDA with an improvement of 8%. Instead of 4.8% only, we would have a 13.2% increase on a year-to-date.
The company is very transparent in the publication of its results, and that's also reflected in the first line on the right, when we see the increase in revenue due to price and volume of sales increase. Price increase is slightly lower than the inflation in the period because we had a volume increase given the better hydrology we have in 2022. 2021 was the most critical year in hydrology in Brazil in terms of incoming water to reservoirs. In 2022, the hydrological conditions are much better, and that causes the volume available for sale in the short run to be higher, and short-term prices, therefore, are lower. This is the reason for the small reduction when compared to the price of twelve months and inflation.
We also observed that the CCEE results are quite favorable, due to the volumes and technology. In terms of results or net income, 17.2% higher in the quarter and 19.2% higher on year-to-date figures, nine months. Otherwise, we would be talking about a 97% increase in the quarter as compared to the Q3 of 2021, which is the effect of inflation on our debt. We make the correlation to the right side of the slide in which the net financial income was EUR 387 million. Another important points to highlight are the increase in the purchase of energy and the reduction in the volume of coal purchases or fuel.
The reduction of coal is due to the sale of Jorge Lacerda Thermoelectric Power Plant and also due to the maintenance in Pampa Sul that happened up to mid-August. Therefore, there was no consumption of coal. We had BRL 83 million less in terms of consumption of fuels. When we have an energy acquisition contract, we have an energy purchase of BRL 236 million higher. 70% of that amount refers to Jorge Lacerda Thermoelectric Complex. Now in the next slide, we'll talk about the other financial highlights. It's important that the company in September has signed the sale of the Pampa Sul Thermoelectric Power Plant located in Candiota. Now we have some conditions precedent with CG, et cetera, to close the deal.
You see there will be some reclassification of the assets to be sold, which changes in lines of accounting classification of the lines. This will have an impact in the configuration of the balance sheet for the quarter, as analysts may notice. We had a considerable volume of sales in the quarter, showing that we continue with our activity. Our policy, as you will see further on, is for this year and future years, aiming to have a high level of contract. This is the strategy we continue to pursue. Although we know that the pressure on prices is a downward one right now, but we're still succeeding in selling energy at reasonable prices.
On the right side of the slide, we talk about the execution of contracts of 488 wind turbines with Vestas do Brasil that will be used to implement the Serra do Assuruá Wind Complex, which is the largest single wind complex of ENGIE worldwide, 846 MW. There is a larger cluster in Bahia, Campo Largo one, two, one and two, but this one, as a single project, is the largest one we've developed in Brazil and the largest of ENGIE worldwide. On slide seven, we have the highlights of supply agreements with Gavião Real. For Gavião Real energy transmission energy that is connected to the substation of Serra Pelada, we won it in the last transmission auction, and we could have a discount of our RAP that's reasonable due to the proximity of synergies we have.
Therefore, in the closing these agreements, we guarantee prices and terms that are adequate with the assumptions we used in our business plan to guide the bid for the auction that happened last year. We also had an important event that took place in this quarter, ordinance from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, allowing all high-voltage consumers to adopt the, or adhere to the non-regulated market of energy as of 2024. This will leverage on our position as a retailer of energy and will have a return on all the investment we made in the digitization, creations of sales channels. As of 2024, we want to be fully operational. We already have the platforms, but we intend to deploy them more intensively with a high potential number of customers that will come from the free or non-regulated market.
We'll go to 120-130 thousand units, consumer units. We need all this automation in our sales process to be able to manage all these new customers. Not only sales, but management and back office services. On the right side, you see the Transparency Award that is guaranteed, and this is like the Oscar or the Academy Award for Transparency from ANEFAC and Fipecafi. It's important to have been awarded this for the 13th time. We also approved payment of interim dividends complementing the Q3 of this year. We had already resolved on the payment of 55%, and we understand that the financial condition of the company allows us to increase the payout by another 45%, so completing the 100% payout of net income in the Q3 of 2022.
Payment will be defined on a timely manner by the executive board, but it has been approved in the last meeting of our board of directors. This is a unique feature of ENGIE in the market. On page eight, the highlight is that ENGIE Brasil Energia and ENGIE SA have endorsed the initiative of Corporate Knights and Global 100 Council of companies that commit to act according to the climate change and the Paris Agreement. We want to be the leader as an energy provider in the Brazilian market, and we'll continue to do so. On the right side, we have approved a change in the name of Administrative Board of Officers to Board of Officers of People, Processes and Sustainability instead of Administrative Officer. Because it's a more up-to-date and current denomination for this officer.
This event is open to everyone on December seventh, and it will be open to analysts and investors. There are too many shareholders, and we cannot have everyone present in our headquarters in Florianópolis. This answers some of the questions we've had lately, asking why some shareholders cannot attend. Yes, they can, but given the low availability of space, you can participate online. We thank everyone, all our investors, for your interest, and we encourage individual shareholders to attend online. On slide nine, we have the ESG indicators. This is something new we brought this year, and it's important for the market and to discuss this with our investors. We continue in this path of renewables and installed capacity. In 2023, with the sale of Pampa, we intend to attain 100% of renewable energy in our portfolio.
We have increased the percentage of renewable energy in our portfolio in this year, 2022. The intensity of emissions has been reduced due to the sale and maintenance of Pampa Sul that also have an influence of total emissions. In addition, the water intake that is mainly necessary for the thermal power plant that have been sold or are in the process of being sold. The strength of women in the workforce, we have been investing more and more in that and having more women trained to, as an affirmative policy, to have more women in managing positions in our company. Lately, we had two important projects that are key, is to insert women in the operations of the company.
This is the area where there is the lowest number of women, but we are having specific projects to train and build the skills of women to operate the plants in engineering. So operators, engineers, technicians, so we can have women in operations. In the administrative area, it's almost 50/50 men and women, but we want to increase the percentage of women in operations. As for social responsibility investments, we have a target of using 100% of incentivized funds, and we've been able to attain that year after year. This is due to the book value, the fiscal income, and that varies according to interest rate or foreign exchange rates, et cetera. We allot that close to the Q4.
We choose the projects throughout the year, so then we can allocate the funds in a proper way at the right volume for the efficient and maximum use of funds. Now, slide number 11. Energy sales strategy. No news here. We saw in the highlights that we sold 88 MW average. We continue with our strategy to sell energy for future contracts, and we continue with a reasonable contracting level for the next year. As you may see on the left of the energy balance chart, we have 11%, 2022, 13%, 2023, 20%, 2024, which is a quite low volume that despite the favorable energy in 2022, we had very poor hydrological years in the past, and that could configure in future years.
We need to have some backup energy, so to speak, because we have hydroelectric plants play an important role in our portfolio. As other sources of energy grow, such as solar and wind, that distribution changes. In terms of sales volumes to free customers, we have a distribution among segments of the economy and two important segments, which are food and steel industry. We don't want to be limited to any specific industrial segment, so we are present in many segments. Continuing on to the next slide. We had evolved in increasing the number of non-regulated consumers, and with the hydroelectric crisis in 2021, we had to reduce the volume of energy, so to non-regulated customers.
We maintain a certain pattern in terms of number of customers, and we expect that in future years, with the opening of the high voltage market, we'll have a significant growth of these customers, and we are getting ready for that. We have 72.5 thousand consumer units. We're talking about 120 or 130 thousand consumer units that will be of high voltage that will be available. Our market share is around 10%, and although our generation amounts to 6%, that shows how strong we are in the non-regulated market. 35% of our operating revenue comes from the non-regulated customers, and we have long-term agreements made at the time of large hydropower plants. Also the wind energy auctions, as well as of the share of transmission.
A part of our portfolio is sold to non-regulated customers, and the other part is for other customers, ensuring our resilience in the long term. Now let's move on to growth. We talk about the wind projects in construction. In Santo Agostinho, we have some trouble in the supply chain, which caused some delay in construction, but we have adjusted the need for such energy in our portfolio. That will affect a bit our profitability, but there are other factors that improve return, especially economic impacts. We still have a return on investment that's quite good on this project. The same applies to the transmission project of Novo Estado. As you may recall, in 2021, there was a very serious accident. We had to interrupt construction in the north part of the project and replace the supplier.
Now, there is 45% missing from the RAP, and that will take place until January of 2023. Now next slide, number 16. We talk about Gavião Real. As we have anticipated, we have engaged suppliers and the contractor for civil construction, and we'll provide you with more information in coming months. Assuruá. This is a more recent project that for which we are now approving the contract with Vestas as a supplier for this wind complex. We expect to start construction in 2023, and gradual operation will occur, as of the H2 of 2024. Now, in terms of growth, Jirau.
Jirau, there was a review of TUST that happened in 2022, and with operational improvements made in the last two years with Edson Silva as CEO of Jirau, now we have a project that generates cash and is less dependent on the sponsors of the project. That brings to the discussion a possible transfer of this asset to ENGIE Energia, as it was originally planned. Everything will be made on an arm's length position, coordinated by a related party's committee, with the voice of minority shareholders, and economically feasible and adequate in terms of pricing for other parties. As we did last year, a transfer of two assets, Floresta and Paracatu, that brought interesting returns for us purchasers and adequate for sellers. This will be the idea.
We haven't had any signal from the controlling shareholder to start this process, but since I am part of the board of Jirau, we start to see a possibility since the asset now is generating cash. We'll bring a healthy asset to our portfolio. On slide 19, projects under development. This is the pipeline of projects we have. We are investing, we are growing, and we have a pipeline to continue to grow. Of course, it will depend on market conditions.
If prices are not attractive to develop new projects, these projects will be capped in our portfolio for future development. It's important to have prices that are compatible with the cost of development and deployment for projects. Today, there is a small mismatch given the rise in costs of raw material, logistics and et cetera, as compared to the prices we have currently in the market.
There is an excessive supply that we can visualize for the future. We have lots of contracts for this period, and we expect this to be eliminated through the compatibilization of future energy auctions, with no longer having discrimination or differentiation between existing energy and new energy. Today, we have a model that allows for this change in regulations, and we have asked the Ministry of Mines and Energy and regulatory authorities not to have this differentiation, to have auction of energy that is common to everyone. That's important. We would like to have a common auction for all types of energy. Now I will turn over for the financial part to Marcelo Malta, and we'll be back for the Q&A session.
Thank you, Sattamini. This slide shows our financial performance. We remain with high levels of return on net equity and invested capital. This is due to our financial discipline and efficient allocation of capital. On the right chart, we show our history of performance. In the period from 2016 to 2021, we have invested around BRL 22 billion with a leverage of 82%. Our own installed capacity has increased a total of 17%. It was not higher due to the sale of assets of the Jorge Lacerda Thermoelectric Complex. We have increased our installed capacity in renewable energy by 32%. We have acquired TAG at the percentage of 32.5%, and we entered the spot market for gas.
We also joined the transmission operation with the construction of two transmission lines, the first in Gralha Azul that has been completed, and Novo Estado that is in the final construction phase, expected to end construction in the Q1 of 2023, as Sattamini said. Our adjusted EBITDA has grown by 113% in the period, and the net income by 34%. This increase in net income was not more significant due to the impairments that we booked for Jorge Lacerda and Pampa Sul assets. We paid dividends and interest on equity amounting to BRL 11.1 billion. This slide shows the development of the net operating revenue. Some of these impacts have been mentioned by Sattamini already.
The rise in revenue due to increase in prices and volume of energy sold, there was an increase of 8% in our average price and a growth in volume of 9.3%. The compensation of financial assets or the Jaguara and Miranda power plants had a negative impact on the comparison period due to the reduction of inflation rates in this quarter. At CCEE, on revenues, there was a negative effect of BRL 109 million, but you will see that, on the EBITDA, there was a positive impact of BRL 188 million. On trading transactions, there was a drop in the volume of trading, traded volume in the period, but the EBITDA, the impact was positive by BRL 4 million.
The transmission revenue has dropped by BRL 677 million, but the net impact on EBITDA was BRL 229 million. Here it's worth highlighting the accounting of the effect of transmission revenues on income, which is only economic, and it is due to the adoption of a specific accounting practice for transmission assets. The bridge of EBITDA will make a note disregarding these transmission assets and including the RAP that we had in the period. On this slide, we show the financial performance of TAG. QoQ, it had a profit of BRL 50 million higher. The reason for this increase in profits is the rise of tariffs earned by TAG. Almost all the revenue is indexed by inflation and the impact of the O&M internalization that was also significant.
This is a large chart, but it shows the EBITDA, and the purpose was to show the variations excluding non-recurring effects, which is basically the reversal of part of the impairment that we created for Jorge Lacerda assets in 2021, and in 2022, a reversal of impairment recorded for Pampa Sul. With the elimination of these one-off events, we had a negative variation on EBITDA of 15.7%. As mentioned by Sattamini, excluding the positive result of GSF in the first and Q3 of 2021, we would have had an increase of 8% on EBITDA. As mentioned previously, we also excluded the economic impact of transmission assets, and with that deduction, there was an increase of 7.3% on the adjusted EBITDA. If we exclude the impact of GSF, this would be 41%.
It's important to mention that this negative effect on this comparison among quarters for transmission assets is basically due to a reduction of CapEx in this quarter when compared to the same quarter of the year before, and which generates a reduction in the transmission margin. In addition, there was an increase in our CapEx due to the effect of the renegotiation of the supply agreement. The supplier responsible for that accident that we had in the past. That caused a need to have an additional CapEx. Due to that accident, also, there was a delay in the COD of the asset. These were the main reasons for this negative effect on transmission, and I would like to remind you that this is only an economic impact.
This chart shows that these impacts were excluded, and we included the RAP for transmission that reached BRL 121 million on a comparison of the quarters. The Novo Estado, Gralha Azul, Novo Estado RAP is about BRL 700 million per year. In addition to the effect on transmission assets, there was an increase in sales volume and sales price. CCEE, I have already mentioned, we had a net positive impact of BRL 188 million. That is basically due to a better hydrology combined with a significant reduction in spot price. Sattamini already mentioned the reduction in the consumption of fuels due to the sale of Jorge Lacerda assets and maintenance at Pampa Sul plant. The reduction of personnel costs is basically driven by the sale of Jorge Lacerda complex.
We also mentioned the new agreement on the hydrological risk, as well as the increase in the volume of purchases for the portfolio, basically due to the contract signed with Diamante as a commitment for the process of sale of that assets. We also had a lower compensation or remuneration of financial assets due to the reduction of inflation rates. We had a positive effect of EUR 58 million regarding the results of TAG, and a positive impact of EUR 4 million in trading transactions.
The evolution of net income. As mentioned by Sattamini already, there was a very significant impact on that, resulting from the better financial income because of the reduction of inflation rates on the periods and the comparison. Our debt statements. Our debt continues at equivalent levels or similar levels to the previous quarter. The net debt over EBITDA, gross debt.
This decrease in the gross debt over EBITDA results from the exclusion of the Pampa Sul debt, as mentioned by Sattamini, due to an accounting practice that is specific because we have signed the sales agreement. That causes Pampa Sul to be recorded on the balance sheet as an asset that is for sale. All the assets and liabilities of Pampa Sul are now booked on a specific line of named assets that is kept for sale. The profile on composition of debt. We have a maturity schedule that is quite balanced throughout the years. Our debt, as you may know, is composed by indexing indexers that are quite defensive. The volume of our debt indexed by IPCA accounts for 72% of the total.
The nominal cost of our debt at the end of this quarter is around 13% or 12.3%, which is equivalent to an IPCA plus 4.8%. Our investment plan on slide 28. Our investment plan remains robust and shows our growth plan and our ambition for growth. From 2018 to 2021, we have invested around BRL 20 billion, and the prospects for 2022 to 2024 is an investment of BRL 11.5 billion. In 2022, we have the expenses made to construct Santo Agostinho and the cost of acquisition of Serra do Assuruá, Floresta and Paracatu. In the year of 2022, we'll have Assuruá and Santo Agostinho. In 2024, only Serra do Assuruá. This is the history of dividends paid. The payout has been 100% in most of the years.
As mentioned by Sattamini as well, we have decided in this quarter to pay additional 45% plus the 55% dividends that we had approved in the previous quarter. With that, I conclude my presentation of the financial aspects. Now I turn the floor over to Rafael.
Thank you, Sattamini. Thank you, Malta. We have two questions. The first one comes from Rafael Nagano from Credit Suisse. Good morning. Referring to the projects in the development pipeline, has there been any change in the expectation of implementation of these projects, considering current levels of CapEx and energy prices? Sattamini, would you like to comment on that?
Yes. Well, this mismatch of realities in terms of the marginal growth cost and prices leads to a reflection about future projects to be implemented. We have a portfolio approach. We understand that in the long term, a mismatch such as this cannot be capped or maintained in the sense that prices will have a positive movement in the future, otherwise investments will be postponed or canceled. This mismatch will certainly disappear in time, at some point in time.
As I have said during the presentation, we have a large volume of contracts for the next two or three years. We do expect that there will be a reduction in the excess of supply and prices will once again adhere to the marginal cost. We'll observe that eventually some price adjustments may happen, but this is an equation that should be balanced in the long run, and this is what we expect.
Thank you, Sattamini. The second question from Rafael is whether the company continues to seek growth through M&A, and which segments we see as greater opportunities. Only solar and wind energy or do we plan to grow on hydro as well?
Well, in terms of pipeline or of green fields, there is that limitation. The opportunity for growth through M&As seems favorable if there is an adequate level of contracts, otherwise you will add more uncontracted energy to the portfolio, and this is not desirable at the moment of excessive supply. Yes, there is a possibility of considering M&As, but it's worth reminding you that we do have a financial discipline, and we want to add value and return premium to our shareholders. If this happens, you will certainly be sure that we're adding value to shareholders.
As for the sources of energy, we have grown through non-renewable or renewable energies so that we can balance our portfolio among technologies. We also consider growth through M&As of hydropower plants. There's no problem in that. Our greater focus is to have a better balance of technologies in our portfolio. If there are good opportunities coming from hydropower plants, we can make the most of that.
The next question comes from Marcelo from Itaú BBA about Santo Agostinho. Is there a penalty to be paid by the supplier of the wind turbines due to the delay?
Yes, all our contracts provide for damages, and this will be discussed in a timely manner. Whenever there is any time of delay on the interim periods or final deadlines, we had part of our costs refunded. When we look today, this delay will be at a price, a period where energy prices are low. I believe that the penalty will be enough to cover our losses.
At the moment in which prices were higher, this wouldn't occur because since the spot price was very high and the liquidated damages defined the energy price to be recomposed, if you have to go to market with a very high spot price, you cannot recompose that. At a lower price investment, this recomposition happens naturally.
There's a question about Jirau, whether ENGIE plans to show its interest to Eletrobras or buy a stake of Eletrobras because it would make sense to operate Santo Antônio and Jirau jointly. He also asks about any interest in the acquisition of the controlling interest of Foz do Areia from Copel.
Yes, it makes sense. There is no conversation about that. For the moment, Wilson is more concerned about other priorities right now. It may be that we can have some ideas of operating together. It doesn't need to be a change in positions or anything like that. We are open for discussion with ENGIE. If it's a good business, a good deal for both companies, we may choose that path that you mentioned. Yes, Foz do Areia will keep on looking, and we have discussed that in the past with Copel. It will depend on the format, prices, and conditions in which this asset is brought to market in this new invitation to bid.
Thank you, Sattamini. Next question comes from Henrique Peretti from JP Morgan. It's about the additional payout of dividends that amounted to 100% of payout on net income of the quarter. What were the new facts on this quarter that motivated the company to pay out every other profit? Can we expect full payout for 2022?
We were conservative in making a decision in an uncertain environment in terms of what political path would be taken with the electoral process and the elections. We understand that the elections happen in a safe way, in a democratic way. That made us comfortable to make the decision that although there is a change in administration, we don't believe that the risk will be high. This is the main reason. We now feel more comfortable to pay out the extra 45% that we had previously retained.
Okay. Thank you, Sattamini. The next question from Andre Sampaio from Santander. He asked us to comment on the auction of access to transmission, how that could impact the market.
Could you repeat the question?
The auction of access to transmission.
Well, I believe that this is being used more to solve the number of projects that exist today, which is not compatible with the transmission capacity available, especially in the Northeast. At ENGIE, we had 95 GW of wind, plus 150+ GW of solar energy in the country while storage capacity is 180 some. So it's totally incompatible this demand volume for granting concessions with ENGIE to separating what will be the actual capacity.
I believe that this is the final goal of Enel in making these auctions for margins of transmission. It's a natural selection for projects that are really with a concrete prospect for being implemented. Some people want to sell projects without having the conditions to continue, and that generates a huge amount of work for Enel and ends up blocking the entire process. This is a way to organize demands for Enel. I think they thought it was a good solution they came up with.
Andrea asks for an update on the ordinary review of physical guarantee and the public hearing about the opening of the low voltage market.
Well, like him, I still don't have any information on that, but I do envisage that at some point in time, the ministry will have to define the review of the ordinary review of a physical guarantee. Believing that they were waiting for elections outcome, I believe that they should publish an ordinance defining the new values.
A question from Joana, investor analyst about CapEx. I believe we can give her more details because she's saying that we see almost BRL 4 billion for 2023 and 2024 in CapEx investments, and we have mentioned that it will be only Serra do Assuruá. We do have other projects being implemented. It's BRL 6 billion in the period.
Yes. Santo Agostinho. We also have investments in Santo Agostinho in 2022 and 2023. Novo Estado for next year. There are other investments in other project assets in being implemented that adds up this to this total of investments for coming years, Joana. Açú, Santo Agostinho, and a bit of CapEx for maintenance as well.
Yes, that's true. Daniel Travitzky from Banco Safra asks about the transmission auctions that happened of 2023. Does it make sense to continue to assess that? And how is the distribution of earnings?
Yes, why not? Of course, we make our calculations, we participate, and if the price is rational, we can bid. If the discounts have other reasons other than economic reasons and return, we'll be out. That's part of our core. We believe that is in line with the energy transition because it allows for energy to be delivered to large consumption centers, which is part of our strategy. If there is a profitable risk-return ratio, we'll be part of the auction. There are other companies that have reasons to offer RAP with the very high discounts and let them take it. But it remains part of our strategy to look at auctions.
Thank you, Sattamini. We have two last questions from Gustavo Faria from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The first one has been answered. It's about the delay in the supply of generators or rather wind turbines. These are the last questions we have for the Q&A. His question is also about the CapEx for renewable energies. What have we seen at the CapEx levels and whether we believe that we are at CapEx levels that are structurally higher in terms in the long run?
Well, I think so. I do believe we have higher CapEx levels. Well, first of all, we understand that the companies that manufacture wind turbines have suffered greatly. Most of them have had losses. It's not sustainable to continue with losses for many years. They will probably have to set different price levels for the business to be sustainable. At first. Secondly, we believe that with the energy crisis in Europe, there will be a higher demand for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels and gas that comes from Russia that's not available, or gas is arriving to Europe in some other ways. There are more offshore wind projects. That is the solution available in Europe due to the scarcity of land for deployment. Also the capacity factor that you have on the sea in Europe is different.
I believe that this will put pressure on the global supply of equipment for solar and wind generation. Yes, that's a new level, and yes, that will present higher price levels in the long run that are compatible with the higher growth of the market. This is our vision for coming years, and according to the group's view, prices of energy will increase given the higher demands that we see due to climate change discussions that we've had.
One last question. Is whether we have any advancements on the production of green hydrogen.
Well, green hydrogen is an important bet in the market, but we'll have to create the conditions for this fuel to be integrated. The major potential consumers we have in the world still have an initial transformation phase, which is the replacement of coal or other fossil sources with gas, and then later on, hydrogen or any molecules deriving from green hydrogen. Could be green methane or natural gas coming from hydrogen.
An example of this that we have talked about, and will be the topic of a seminar that will be conducted in Mexico next week by Alacero, is the example of steel industry. They're highly dependent on coal and cokes, and the change to natural gas will significantly reduce their emissions. In order to be net zero in some point in time, they will have to use renewable energy and add to their process different molecules from natural gas coming from fossil sources.
They will have to have a synthesized gas to attain that goal. These are steps, you know. We start in the reasonable scale. We have the definition of a construction project in Bahia. A customer we have in TAG Pipeline. We had an initial partnership with them for H2Global, which is the German initiative, but they continue on their own, on their investment decision despite that. We do have projects that we are developing with potential partners, off takers of hydrogen. This is something that has a journey that starting today and will depend on a series of factors, as well as on the support of governments.
We see other countries taking that type of initiative, of supporting this industry, such as in Germany. United States with some initiatives as well. Here in Brazil, it will happen at some point in time, but it cannot be on the electric sector. It should come as if there is a subsidy, it should be it should use funds from the treasury not to pose a burden on other agents.
Okay, thank you very much. I believe that with this answer, we close our Q&A session, and now I turn the floor over to you for your final remarks.
I am very happy with the number of questions and everyone's interest. We've had one more quarter of solid results, showing that our long-term strategy is very adequate. We await the end of the year with excellent news, and I hope we have a regulatory development for the country that is good with technical decisions to change the regulatory framework, valuing the attributes with hydropower plants, with the PL 414 being resumed again next year with less of a political bias, and to have an efficient allocation of funds to the industry. We want a healthy environment in which consumers pay for energy at a fair price without damaging any other industry.
Okay, thank you all very much for attending the call. Please feel free to get in touch with the investor relations area if you have any further questions. We remain available. Thank you and have a good afternoon. Goodbye, everyone.