Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining. I am Laura Korjus, the Head of Communication in Tallinna Vesi, and I welcome you all to today's Tallinna Vesi's webinar. This webinar will be hosted by Aleksandr Timofejev, Chief Executive Officer, and Kristi Ojakäär, Chief Financial Officer. Firstly, Aleksandr Timofejev will introduce the highlights of the third quarter, then the presenters will also speak about Tallinna Vesi's operational and financial results of the third quarter of the year. Aleksandr Timofejev will also give an overview about some of the investments made in the nine months of the year and also large scale investments planned for the future. Right after the presentation, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. It is also possible to type in your question during the presentation, but these will be answered in the end part of the webinar.
To submit your question, please use the question box on the right side of the screen. Now, I will hand it over to Aleksandr. Here you go.
Thank you, Laura. Good morning, everybody. I'm happy to welcome you today here. I hope you are well and the health is good as in Estonia we can see that the coronavirus spread quite quickly, and every day we get new cases. As in the previous quarters, COVID-19 has had an impact on Tallinna Vesi's activity as well. We have set in place several restrictions to ensure the health and safety of our employees and customers are in place. Other than that, our business works as usual. All the planned investments have been made and of course, deliveries were scheduled. Later, Kristi will give an overview about COVID's impact on our financial results. I'm happy to say that we have completed the reconstruction of mechanical treatment stage at the Paljassaare Wastewater Treatment Plant.
It was the largest investment that the company had made in the wastewater treatment plant during the past decade with total cost of EUR 7.8 million. The investments made allow to maintain the excellent quality of effluent discharge to the sea, to keep the Baltic Sea clean, and to be sure that resilience and efficient wastewater treatment for Tallinn is in place. The renovation works allow us to remove 20% more grit from the wastewater already in the first stage of the treatment, which also has a positive effect on the efficiency of the rest of the treatment process in Paljassaare.
As of autumn 2021, we have started cooperation with three Estonian universities, Tallinn University of Technology, TTK University of Applied Sciences, and Estonian University of Life Sciences, and three vocational educational schools, Tallinn Industrial Education Centre, Tallinn Lasnamäe School of Mechanics, and Tallinna Kopli Ametikool, awarding the scholarships to active students. The purpose of awarding the scholarships is to increase the attractiveness of the water sector in young people and to train the new generation of professionals for our company. I would like to move on and to introduce you our new board member of management and the name of the new board member is Tarvi Thomberg. Tarvi will take on a position as the Chief Asset Management Officer. Tarvi will be managing the daily operations in particular of the technical services. Let's name them underground assets, water metering, customer services, and administrative operations.
Tarvi has long-term experience as a board member from various infrastructure companies and technology companies. He has been a member of the management board of the largest electrical network company in Estonia, Elektrilevi, as well as the company developing the production technology and benefiting from the technology of which he has also been the CEO. Tarvi has a master's degree in electrical engineering from Tallinn University of Technology. He has completed a management development program at the London Business School and an MBA program at the Estonian Business School for Managers. I would like to welcome him to the team. I will give you an update on our operational performance during the third quarter, which was also covered in our TSE release last Wednesday. The Company achieved good operational results again during the third quarter and of course during nine months of 2021.
We monitor our water quality at all times, and we have collected a total of 2,243 water samples during this year, of which 99.6% met all quality requirements. In the third quarter of the year, the quality of tap water was a little bit lower than during the same period last year. Company had some small problems with the microbiological quality of the water at Lasnamäe region. In order to restore water quality in the area, we regularly carried out thorough flushing and further local water disinfection and cooperated with our customers to ensure continuous flow in the property water pipelines.
The third quarter of 2021, the effluent parameters of the wastewater treatment plants were at the excellent level, as indicated by extremely low levels of nitrogen and phosphorus discharged to the sea. For the purpose of assessing the treatment efficiency and the quality of wastewater, we continuously monitor for pollutants in both the incoming wastewater and final treated effluent leaving the wastewater treatment plant. Our main goal is to deliver high-quality service to our customers, and in the first nine months of the year, our customer satisfaction was really high, 4.3 points out of five. This was much better than during the same periods last year. This shows a positive trend in our customer satisfaction with the customer service we provide. To maintain customer satisfaction, we have set ourselves clear and forward-looking targets.
We have seen a gradual decline in the number of customer complaints year- on- year, which is a positive trend and serves as an indicator of stable improvement in the quality of service we provide to our customers. In nine months, the number of customer complaints has decreased for 33% compared to the same period last year. If we speak about the leakages, then the third quarter of 2021 was not as good as the same quarter last year. The leakage rate during third quarter of the year was 14.1%. Also, if we speak about nine-month results, then the result was not as good as last year. We always try to disturb our customers as little as possible.
During the first nine months of the year, the average water interruption lasted three hours and eight minutes, which shows an increase compared to the same period last year. In terms of enhancing the reliability of water supply service to our customers, we have reconstructed 6,600 meters of water and 5,800 meters of wastewater pipelines. We have done reconstruction works in more detail about our investment in our asset the next slide. The Company constantly puts in effort to improve our service. In the nine months of the year, we carried out investment projects in the amount of EUR 7.7 million. We made investments in the network to ensure uninterrupted service and reliability of water supply to our consumers, such as reconstructing water and wastewater pipes.
We have done reconstruction works in cooperation with the City of Tallinn on Oa Street, Sirbi Street, Rüütli tänav, Jõe tänav and Madara tänav and of course, on Kadaka and Kõivu tee. Together with the energy group Utilitas, renovation was done on Kohila, Lõikuse and Mustjõe tänav. Works on Kadaka Road and Kohila Street include renovating large diameter and strategically important pipelines that will positively impact a significant number of our customers. We also make constant investment into our water and wastewater treatment facilities. One of the biggest investments for the water treatment this year is the renovation of Ülemiste Pumping Station, which is an important part of the water network. This pumping station pumps drinking water to the large amount of Tallinners and nearby municipalities. We are also currently doing the reconstruction design for Rohuneeme Pumping Station, which is located in Pirita area.
Reconstruction of the pipes for chlorination units has been completed in the water treatment plant of Ülemiste. As stated before, one of the largest projects of the decade, reconstruction of mechanical treatment stage at Paljassaare Wastewater Treatment Plant. The construction works have been completed before schedule, and that's a very good positive impact for the environmental objectives. There are currently several large projects going on in the wastewater treatment plant, such as a sewer reconstruction works at the main pumping station and shore reconstruction Paljassaare. Our capital investments into the network ensure uninterrupted water and wastewater service and reliability of water supply to our customers also in the future. In addition to the investment projects ongoing in the third quarter, we start shortly with other large-scale projects in the company. We have taken ourselves a target to start installing remotely readable water meters.
Our target is that by 2026, each customer will get a smart meter with whom Tallinna Vesi has a contract. As it has been our customer request for a long period of time, we are now happy to start fulfilling this project. This will give us even more accurate overview about water consumption in the network and will take away responsibility from the customer to report their water meter reading every month or quarter. As the importance of cybersecurity is growing all over the world, we are also putting more focus to improve the security and user-friendliness of our self-service environment. Our goal is that the process renewal and signing of a connection and service contracts will be more automatic in the future than it is today.
We have also started with a design procurement to build a combined heat and power plant in our Paljassaare Wastewater Treatment Plant. With this project, we plan to achieve the success to produce 100% of heat and 30% of electrical power that the wastewater treatment uses by taking into work the new CHP plant. This project also ensures sustainability for the wastewater treatment plant of Tallinn. In the next quarters, we also plan investments into our network. In parallel, we start cooperation with universities to compose a plan for the network reconstruction needs. This will give us insight to plan the reconstruction works where it's most necessary to improve more the quality of our service we provide today. There are also several environment-related projects ongoing in the company, such as footprint calculations and developing net zero strategy.
With these projects, we have set a goal to contribute to CO2 neutrality in Europe. That's everything from my side, at the moment about operations, and I will give over the word to Kristi, who will speak about finance.
Thank you, Aleksandr. With the following, I would like to give you the overview of the financial performance of Tallinna Vesi in the third quarter of 2021. First of all, the latest economic forecast from SEB Pank finds that the Estonian economy has exited the crisis very powerfully. Also, some sectors have not recovered yet. The economy, as a whole, has clearly returned to its pre-crisis level. The recovery of the economy has had a positive impact on Tallinna Vesi's financial results, reflecting a slight increase of revenues compared to the third quarter of last year. We are optimistic that the consumption will revert to the pre-pandemic volumes in the longer term. Compared to the third quarter in 2020, the total sales revenues increased by 2.5%, amounting to EUR 13.6 million.
The sales of water services decreased by 2% or EUR 0.2 million, and the construction services increased by 30.5% or EUR 0.5 million . The gross profit for the third quarter in 2021 was EUR 5.4 million, which was lower by 7.5% or EUR 0.4 million compared to the same period in 2020. The gross profit was mainly impacted by higher cost of goods and services sold. In the third quarter in 2021, the operating profit was EUR 5.5 million or EUR 0.3 million lower than in the same period in 2020, being mainly impacted by changes in gross profit.
Operating profit in third quarter in 2021 was also affected by reduction in the provision formed for the possible third-party claims in the amount of EUR 1.2 million, which is the same amount as in the same period last year. Compared to third quarter in 2020, the net profit of the company was EUR 0.3 million lower, being mainly impacted by changes in operating profit. On to the next slides, I will give more detailed comments on the changes in revenues and expenses. Total sales revenues for the third quarter of 2021 increased by 2.5%, amounting to EUR 13.6 million. Total revenues from water services were by 2% or EUR 0.2 million lower than in the third quarter of 2020, amounting to EUR 11.2 million.
The decrease in water services revenues was mainly driven by changes in consumption of commercial customers and lower stormwater treatment and disposal service revenues. The private customer revenues in main service area remained at the same level compared to same period in last year, being down by 0.1% to EUR 4.9 million. The commercial customer revenues in the main service area increased compared to the same period in 2020 by 3% to EUR 3.8 million, driven by increase in consumption. The sales to commercial customers compared to last year were impacted by slight easement of the pandemic-related restrictions as hotels and spas and entertainment facilities were opened in June, and less people were working at home.
Outside service area, revenues decreased by 1.6%, amounting to EUR 1.3 million. The change was related to lower consumption of wastewater and stormwater disposal services. Stormwater revenues from the main service area were lower by 23.8%, amounting to EUR 0.9 million in the third quarter in 2021, driven mainly by 45% lower stormwater volumes and balanced by higher cost per cubic meter. The revenues from construction services showed an increase of 30.5% or EUR 0.5 million compared to the third quarter in 2020 and amounted to EUR 2.2 million. The increase was related to higher pipe and drill construction services revenues impacted mainly by tenders won from market in Tallinn and surrounding municipalities. This now takes us to the costs.
The total cost of goods sold increased by 10.3% or EUR 772,000 in third quarter of 2021, amounting to EUR 8.2 million. Total direct production cost increased by 20.4% or EUR 332, 000, mostly due to the higher electricity and chemicals costs. Electricity cost increased by 39.6%, mainly due to, on average, nearly 42% higher electricity price. Chemicals cost increased by 17.5%, driven mainly by an average 91% higher price of methanol. Construction services cost increased by 34.6% to EUR 1.5 million, and were in line with the higher construction services revenues mentioned earlier.
Other cost of goods sold decreased by 7.2% to EUR 1.3 million and were related to timing in asset maintenance costs. Administrative and marketing costs decreased by 21.5%, or EUR 262,000, amounting to EUR 1 million related to lower professional services costs. Other net income and expenses amounted to net income of EUR 1.1 million compared to net income of EUR 1.2 million in last year. The net income reflects EUR 1.2 million decrease in provision for those possible third-party claims in third quarter of 2021, which is the same amount as in the third quarter of 2020. This takes us now to the cash flows.
As of end of September 2021, the company's cash balance stood at EUR 36.1 million, forming 14.3% of the total assets. Compared to the end of last quarter, the cash balance has decreased by EUR 0.9 million by end of this quarter, mainly as a result of lower operating cash flows. During nine months of 2021, total operating cash flow amounted to EUR 16.8 million, and the company's collection of receivables continues to be high, being on average 99.7%. The net cash flows from investing activities during the nine months of 2021 resulted in a cash outflow of EUR 7.7 million, which is EUR 0.8 million less than in the same period last year.
Investments into fixed assets have been EUR 9.5 million , and the compensations received for the construction of pipes and connection points were EUR 1.9 million . The company's financing cash outflows during the nine months of 2021 were EUR 17.6 million . Compared to the last year's same period, cash flows decreased by EUR 9.6 million , mainly related to lower dividend and interest payments. Thank you, and now I'm giving floor back to Laura.
Thank you both for the presentation. Now we will give you some time to submit your questions into the question box. Please feel free to type in any questions you might have. Thank you. We have received four questions. First question is from Silver Sõerd, and he's asking, "Are you hedging your electricity position currently, or do you have hedges for upcoming year? What kind of contracts do you have on chemical side, and how easy can suppliers change the pricing?" The second question is from Artur Lindmaa, and he asks, "What's the current outlook for the management regarding price of chemicals? Is it expected to stay high for the foreseeable future?" The third question on the same topic is from Sander Danil, and he asks, "Have you hedged any of your electricity supplies for the coming quarter of 2022?" Kristi, please.
Thank you. I will try to answer to all of those questions together. First of all, with regards to chemical price, as you know, we do a public procurement for the purchases, so part of the chemical prices are fixed for a year. Part of the chemicals are tied as well to the market price fluctuations, especially methanol. With regards to the electricity, this year we have had a mixed approach. We have been fixing the electricity price in some of the quarters.
Now, due to the high volatility on the market and the quite high risk margins which is asked for a fixed price, we've decided to buy from the market in October and November. As well, we have decided not to fix the price for 2022 yet. However, we are looking for possibilities at the market, and if there is a suitable moment, then we will consider hedging once again.
We also have one more question from Sander Danil regarding COVID impact. It is: considering the imposition of new business restrictions due to COVID-19, what's your outlook for commercial consumption in the fourth quarter?
We expect the consumption to remain relatively stable. There could be some minor impacts. We hope to be with the consumption on the same level as in the last quarter.
Thank you, Kristi. We will give you two more minutes to type in your questions. Okay, seems like we don't have any more questions. A recording of the presentation will be available in the Nasdaq Baltic. Okay, sorry. We still have one question. Okay, we have one more question from Sander Danil, and he's asking, "Is it correct to assume that you have three more quarters left to reverse the provisioning for..." Kristi, please.
The answer to this question is that we actually have five quarters left until the end of the next year to revert the provision.
Thank you, Kristi and Aleksandr, for the presentation, and thank you all for joining. The recording of the presentation will be available in the Nasdaq Baltic YouTube channel webinar playlist shortly. Presentation materials and reports can be found on Tallinna Vesi's webpage. Have a good day.