Dear ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the conference call of VERBUND AG. At our customer's request, this conference will be recorded. As a reminder, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If any participant has difficulty hearing the conference, please press star key followed by zero on your telephone for operator assistance. May I now hand you over to Peter Kollmann, CEO, who will lead you through this conference. Please go ahead.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you to our presentation of VERBUND for the first half year 2022, and let me thank you for joining today's conference call. With me today is Andreas Wollein. Before we move into the analysis of the business development of VERBUND, let me make a few general comments. The second quarter 2022 continued to be marked by tremendous geopolitical tensions. The ongoing war in the Ukraine, as well as inflation rising to records, key interest rates, the possibility of a recession in Europe, the difficult framework which we are facing led to strong distortions from the European energy markets and to strongly rising and volatile energy prices.
Changes in gas supply volumes and the changed purchasing structure were particularly noticeable in the development of gas prices as a result of the strong increase in world market prices for primary energy sources and the high costs for CO2 certificates. European wholesale prices for electricity went up dramatically. The current development on the international energy markets drastically demonstrate the urgency of expanding electricity generation from renewable sources, as well as the expansion of grids and storage facilities. The focus needs to be on the phase-out of fossil fuels, and we at Verbund are making a valuable contribution in this context. Against this background, Verbund had a positive development of its key figures in the first half year 2022. Now let's move into details. At the beginning, I would like to highlight the most important influencing factors on our results developments.
Based on our hedging strategy for our own electricity generation from hydropower, the average achieved price increased by EUR 65.9 to EUR 112.5 in the first half year 2022, in comparison to 2021. The hydro coefficients, which as you know, is determining the generation from our run-of-river hydropower plants, was 10 percentage points below the long-term average and 6 percentage points below the first six months in 2021. The production from our hydro reservoirs, on the other hand, was much higher compared to last year. Contributions from flexibility products increased in all categories, especially control energy and pumping, in total by 134.6% compared to last year. We also had a positive contribution from the full consolidation of Gas Connect Austria.
Finally, there were positive non-recurring effects of in total EUR 86.6 million compared to EUR 9.3 million in 2021. Now, the impact of these influencing factors on the key figures of VERBUND in the first half year 2022 is as follows: EBITDA strongly increased by 110.5% to almost EUR 1.4 billion, and the reported group results increased by 151% to EUR 817 million. The adjusted group results increased by 133% to EUR 734 million, and the operating cash flow increased to a level of EUR 920 million. The free cash flow of dividends, however, was negative at a level of -EUR 111 million.
Net have increased only slightly by 1.6% to a level of EUR 3.568 billion. Now, let me give you an update on our guidance. Verbund expects for 2022 a reported and adjusted EBITDA between approximately EUR 3 billion-EUR 3.5 billion, and the reported group results between approximately EUR 1.68 billion-EUR 2.03 billion based on average generation from hydro, wind, and PV, as well as the opportunities and risk situation of the group. The payout ratio will be between 45% and 55% of the adjusted group result between approximately EUR 1.6-EUR 1.95 billion. The earnings forecast and the information on our expected payout ratio are obviously contingent on not being impacted by possible energy policy measures.
The scheme of some of the profits at energy companies or specifically at Verbund. The guidance for 2022 for flexibility products is approximately EUR 250 million. Our old guidance was EUR 190 million, so we see an increase there related to the overall rise in energy prices. The reason for this increase are the exceptional results in the first half year 2022, especially from pumping and turbining due to high spreads. Now in terms of the hedging volumes, that of course for you is a very important factor. For 2022, we achieved an average achieved contract price for hydro generation of 109.9 EUR per megawatt-hour, 115.5 for 2023, and 102 for 2024.
Please note that we had already hedged approximately 88% of the volumes for 2022, 42% of the volumes for 2023, and approximately 21% of the volumes for 2024. On a mark-to-market basis, as of the fourteenth of July, we calculated with a price of EUR 153.5 for 2022, EUR 250 for 2023, and EUR 207 for 2024. As you know, there is a very high sensitivity to every single euro change in prices, which is EUR 25 million on our EBITDA line. One euro equals EUR 25 million in EBITDA. With that, I'm coming to the next page, where we show you the hydro segment at 0.9.
The hydro coefficient, as you know, is an index quantifying the hydropower generation of the run-of-river power plants, was 10 percentage points below the long-term average and 6 percentage points below the level of the first half of 2021. However, the production from our pumped-storage power plants increased by 18.7%, mainly due to higher turbining. Own production from hydropower, therefore, overall slightly decreased by 455 gigawatt hours or 3.1%, to a total of 14.1 terawatt hours compared to the half of 2021. Higher average achieved prices and an increase in the contribution from flexibility products more than compensated the reduction volumes. Therefore, the EBITDA in the hydro segment increased by 175.6% to EUR 1.22 billion.
Now on our key projects, the 480 MW Limberg III pumped-storage power plant, this is going according to plan. We are within the given timeframe, the 45 MW Reißeck II pumped-storage power plant project, as well as the project in Töging, in Germany, are all delivering according to our planned time framework. Now let me talk about our new renewable segments. There we have a coefficient as well, which is obviously an index quantifying the generation from wind power and PV. That amounted to 1.03 in the first half year 2022, and that compares to 0.91 in the half year 2021.
Generation from wind power increased by 15.7% or 70 GWh and amounted to 513 GWh in the half year 2022. More favorable wind conditions in all markets were the reason for this development. Generation from PV amounted to 2.2 GWh in the reporting period. Now, taking a look at the EBITDA development in the new renewable segment, we see that the EBITDA increased by 145.7%, with an EBITDA amounting to EUR 60 million. In addition to higher volumes, higher average achieved prices are the main reasons for this increase in our EBITDA development. Now, on the next page, on the negative value of -EUR 166 million.
This negative EBITDA is mainly due to a negative result from the valuation of energy derivatives in connection with hedging transactions for future energy deliveries and high procurement prices of electricity and gas for our contribution to sales segment resulted from flexibility products. There we saw an increase of EUR 33.2 million compared to last year. Verbund delivers electricity and gas to approximately 530,000 end customers, that represents an increase of approximately 1% year-on-year. Verbund, like many other companies, decided to take measures to help end customers from rising electricity prices. Now, in our all other segments, there we have the generation from thermal power. Thermal power plant was up by 588 GWh to 805 GWh.
That is a large increase that is due to the market-driven use of one line of the CCGT Mellach. Higher volumes and higher spreads had a positive contribution to our EBITDA development there. The negative EBITDA in the thermal segment in the second quarter resulted mainly from a negative effect from the valuation of energy derivatives. The contribution from flexibility products here decreased by EUR 7.8 million. Contribution from Kelag, as you know, that's the provincial utility of Carinthia, to our financial results decreased to EUR 5.7 million due to a lower hydro situation and non-recurring effects based on the current opportunities and risks. A stable earnings development is expected for the full year 2022, as far as Kelag is concerned.
Now, finally, I would like to remind you that our CCGT in Mellach was contracted from APG, Austrian Power Grid, for future congestion management, starting with the first of October 2021. In detail, our line 10, as we call it, is contracted from the first of October 2021 to the thirtieth of September 2023. Our line two, which is called line 20, from the first of April 2022 to the thirtieth of September 2022. In the first quarter and in the fourth quarter, we used line 20 on a market-driven basis. Now, the district heating power plant Mellach was not contracted by APG and is therefore mothballed since the first of October 2021. Discussions on how to convert it back to use it with coal for securing the security of supply are ongoing.
Main topics include obviously workforce and the sourcing of coal, et cetera. Now, on the next page, on the grid segment, the contribution from APG, which is our 100% owned subsidiary responsible for the entire Austrian high voltage grid. There we have a difference between local GAAP and IFRS, which is something we always mention on the conference call, because the numbers are different under the IFRS. In contrast to local GAAP, we have a much higher volatility as a result of not having their so-called regulatory accounts. That is something where we hope that IFRS will introduce that within the next few years so that we can take out that volatility.
The EBITDA for the first half of 2022 from the electricity grid business, according to IFRS, was approximately EUR 179 million. The EBITDA guidance, and this is important now for the electricity grid, is only EUR 65 million. Now, what is the reason? The reasons for this are the following. In congestion management, there have so far been only very low call-off costs for the Austrian control area in the first two quarters due to the very high prices and the assumptions that in congestion management, the usually strongest demand months are still to come. We expect an increase in costs for the second half of the year. Another very important point, even more important than congestion management, is the auctions.
We had very high revenues in the first half of the year due to the increased price spreads at the borders, especially with Germany. Since the go live of the Core Region, however, there are currently losses from auctions due to the new regulations. This has now been planned accordingly. In addition, the clawbacks of the regulator to reduce the regulatory accounts will have a negative impact as well. Those are the key reasons for the decrease in terms of our guidance for the full year in APG. Now, Gas Connect Austria. Gas Connect Austria operates and constructs natural gas high pressure pipelines. In Austria, the company is also responsible for marketing and provision of transport capacity border points, the so-called entry and exit capacities, and of course, the transport capacity required for the domestic natural gas demand.
The company plays a very important role in the supply of natural gas in Austria and in Europe. The natural gas is transported to the Austrian federal states, but also to Germany, France, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, and Italy. With regard to the results contribution of Gas Connect Austria, we report an EBITDA of approximately EUR 46 million for the first half year, and the guidance for the full year is approximately EUR 100 million. On the next page, we show you our non-recurring effects in detail. We encountered impairments amounting to EUR 31.9 million, stemming mainly from an impairment in the Austrian hydropower plant, Gratkorn, and the goodwill of Gas Connect Austria. There was also a reversal of impairments relating to the CCGT Mellach in the amount of EUR 56 million.
In addition, the measurement of an obligation to return an interest in the hydropower plant, Donaukraftwerk Jochenstein, amounted to EUR 28 million, that had a positive effect on the other financial results. The valuation of the Trans Austria Gasleitung, short TAG, the other profit participation right amounted to a negative EUR 11.3 million and had a counteracting effect on the other financial results. We also had impairments relating to our hydropower plant in Aschach and TAG amounting to minus EUR 4.2 million in total. The overall effect on the financial result was EUR 12.5 million.
In taxes, we had, in addition to the effects which I've just mentioned, a revaluation of deferred taxes as a consequence of the decision to lower Austria's corporate income tax, in connection with the Eco-Social Tax Reform Act. This effect amounted to EUR 56.6 million on an isolated basis. In total, the effects on taxes were EUR 44 million. After considering the effects on minorities, the non-recurring effects on the group results level amounted to EUR 82.6 million. We also show the non-recurring effects in the first half year of 2022 in comparison for your information. With that, I will hand over to Andreas, who is going to take you through our key financial figures. Please, Andreas.
Yeah. Thank you, Peter. Quick words to the consolidated key financial figures. On page ten, EBITDA on a consolidated basis increased by EUR 724 million or 110% to a level of EUR 1.378 billion. I think Pete already explained the various developments in the segments. Basically, all segments were positive except the same segment. Depreciation increased by around 12% to EUR 219 million due to the acquisition of Gas Connect Austria last year and increased investments, mainly into the high voltage grid of APG and into the hydropower plants. The financial results deteriorated from around +EUR 19 million to -EUR 15 or -EUR 16 million.
This was mainly attributable to lower earnings contributions from the interests accounted for using the equity method, mainly Kelag. Taxes and income were influenced by a positive non-recurring effect amounting to around EUR 57 million. As a consequence, the group results therefore increased by EUR 492 million or 152% to EUR 817 million. The group results after adjustment for non-recurring effects was up by around 133%.
Finally, I would like to mention the increase in additions to tangible assets in total from EUR 250 million to EUR 588 million increased, resulted in particular from the acquisition of the 70% of shares in Four Wind and one PV project company in Spain with a total capacity of 171 MW from Capital Energy, as well as investments in connection with the pumped-storage power plant Limberg III into the hydropower plant Töging in Bavaria, and the 380-kilovolt Salzburg high voltage line.
On the bottom left, you will find the additions into tangible assets of the regulated business of Gas Connect Austria and Austrian Power Grid, whereas on the bottom right, you will find the additions into tangible assets in the core business and others. When we move into the next slide, page 11, you'll see the development of the operating cash flow, free cash flow and our debt position. Our operating cash flow in the first half year increased compared to the first half year, 2021. It showed an increase of around 116% to EUR 920 million, mainly due to higher achieved contract prices and the higher operating cash flow from the grid segment.
Higher tax payments and the increased margining payments for the energy derivatives had a counterbalancing effect. Excluding the margining effects, the operating cash flow would have been higher by approximately EUR 680 million. The free cash flow showed a positive development from -EUR 473 million to a level of positive EUR 111 million. The higher operating cash flow had a positive effect, whereas the high payments for investments in intangible assets and property, plant and equipment had a negative effect. The net debt figure was quite stable, so it's around EUR 3.6 billion, gearing increased from 55% at the end of 2021 to 67%. Moving on to slide 12. A quick overview about the financial liabilities.
The debt maturity profile shows a remaining repayment of EUR 13 million in 2022. You can also see a peak in 2024 with a repayment of EUR 675 million, mainly consisting of a fixed interest bond of around EUR 500 million. As liquidity backup, VERBUND has currently access to a committed EUR 500 million syndicated loan facility, which is undrawn. We have also access to various committed and uncommitted lines with a large number of different banks up to approximately EUR 3.1 billion. The total amount of our financial liabilities is approximately EUR 2.7 billion. The increase is caused by the considerably higher amount of short-term money market liabilities due to the margining requirements for our electricity trading business.
The average interest rate on our debt is approximately 1.7%. With regard to the rating, the S&P outlook of VERBUND AG was changed recently from stable to positive at the beginning of July. Now being at A- positive outlook, the Moody's rating is still at A3 stable outlook. Yeah. Now let me hand over again to Peter for presenting the last chart, which is the outlook for the actual year. Thank you.
Thank you, Andreas. Now on the basis of the aforementioned developments, our guidance for 2022 is the following. We expect a reported and adjusted EBITDA of approximately between EUR 3 billion and EUR 3.5 billion, and a reported group result of approximately between EUR 1.68 billion and EUR 2.03 billion under the assumption of average hydro, wind and PV generation in the quarters 3 and 4, as well, of course, the chances and risk situation of the entire group. For the financial year 2022, Verbund plans to pay out between 45% and 55% of the group results after adjustment for non-recurring effects of approximately between EUR 1.6 billion and EUR 1.95 billion.
In addition to the regular dividend, the executive board of Verbund has resolved to propose to the 2023 AGM the distribution of a special dividend in the amount of EUR 400 million. Distribution of dividends must be approved by the supervisory board at the meeting at which the annual financial statements are to be approved, and also requires the approval of the shareholders of Verbund AG at the 2023 annual general meeting. The earnings forecast and the information on the expected payout ratio are contingent on not being impacted by possible energy policy measures to skim off some of the profits at energy companies. Now, with that, I'm happy to answer your questions. Please.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question for our speakers, please dial zero and two on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. Once your name has been announced, you can ask a question. If you find your question is answered before it is your turn to speak, you can dial zero and two to cancel your question. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selection. One moment please for the first question. The first question is from Wanda Serwinowska at Credit Suisse. Your line is now open.
Good morning, Wanda Serwinowska, Credit Suisse. Two questions from me. The first one is on the hedging and hydro levels. Would you be able to disclose the latest data point? That would be very helpful. When I look at the 2024 hedges, they didn't really move versus the end of Q1, and I would like to ask about the reason. Is it because the 2024 contract is illiquid, or you are not willing to hedge it because of the potential margining payments? That would be the first question. The second question, if you could comment on the recent two pieces of news. The first one was on the VKI that sued Verbund on the price in Austria. The second one, there was a proposal on a partial price cap on household power bills in Austria.
Any comments from you on the potential impact on Verbund would be appreciated.
Yeah, sure. Now, first of all, on the actual numbers in terms of hedging, we are more than happy to share that with you. As far as the year 2022 is concerned, we already 88% hedged with EUR 110.7 as the average hedged price. The mark-to-market currently, and that obviously, you know, can change as we have dramatic volatility, would be 153, approximately 153. Now, as far as 2023 is concerned, there we are already 50% hedged at a price of EUR 113. There again, on the mark-to-market, with very high volatile unhedged prices, we would come to EUR 150.
For 2024, we are 29% hedged, there at a price of EUR 94. Unhedged volumes priced around EUR 255 would give us a total of around EUR 208. That would be the latest on the hedging. As I mentioned, even when you look at the amounts in 2022, i.e., the 12% unhedged figures, with the high prices and with the high volatility, that can still have an impact, which obviously you would never have seen in previous years. The same is obviously true for 2023 and 2024. Now, in terms of the potential price cap in Austria, that is of course a very important topic.
There is a very wide political discussion here in Austria now for several weeks. It's almost daily in the papers, in the media. There is a very strong tendency at this point in time to introduce a potential price cap to consumers. One of the federal states, i.e., Lower Austria, has already done that for 3,500 kWh at a price of EUR 0.11. I think it would be a fair assumption that something will be introduced on a federal level, i.e., for all of Austria. At that point in time, no specific decisions have been made, but that is an open discussion.
Thank you. Can I ask about the hydro year to date? Because it was pretty weak in H1.
Yes. Yeah, sure. As you can imagine, hydro conditions, like everywhere in Europe, has been lower. We have, like today, for example, a hydro coefficient of 0.73. Yesterday we had lower. We have already seen, within the last few weeks, a level of, for example, 0.56. Those are numbers that are very rare. So this is, currently it is very dry. Year to date, we have 0.87, which is 13 percentage points below the long-term average. It is very difficult to predict, what we are going to see, in fall. You know, we had situations within the last three years where after a relatively dry summer we have seen a very wet fall.
You know, as always at this point, I say, you know, weather very difficult to predict. Yes, I agree with you, the last few months in terms of dry conditions have been challenging.
If I may follow up on what you said on the price cap. Is there any discussion how it's going to be financed? I mean, is there any potential impact on Verbund, or would it be, would you be asked to cover part of the delta, or is it coming from the federal budget? What are the proposals on the table? If you could also comment on the VKI lawsuit, that would be also appreciated.
Yeah. Well, Andreas is going to comment on the VKI lawsuit. I will cover the potential financing of price caps if they were introduced. Well, we are not aware of how this is going to be refinanced. However, at this point in time, I cannot exclude that you know that could have an impact on the energy sector. You know the European discussions, you know what other countries have done in terms of you know windfall taxes. At this point in time, it is very difficult to evaluate what could be introduced in fall. I would assume that there is an analysis phase over the summer. You know, if a price cap were introduced, it would probably be in fall.
Also very difficult to predict what is going to happen in 2023 on that front. The best obviously would be a synchronization on the European level. Again, difficult to see what the discussions will bring out. Doesn't sound like a lot of certainty at this point in time, but that's the way it is. I think there, we're in good company with other energy companies in other countries.
On the VKI lawsuit, it is a lawsuit which has been filed by some clients because of the indexation clauses in our contracts. We have been to be almost a little bit surprised, because we have a clear indexation clause always stated in our electricity contracts to customers. This clause is taken from the Austrian Energy Agency. It's public. We apply this clause of course to end customers. We I mean, it's an open lawsuit. I would say we have to wait what is the outcome, but the potential risk I would say is limited. Yeah.
Thanks a lot.
The next question is from Olly Jeffery, Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.
Thank you very much. Couple of questions from me, please. The first one is just following up on your comments on the potential price cap for household bills. Two questions on that. Firstly, if the plan of having you mentioned one of the states has already gone ahead with this 3.5 megawatt hour consumption limit. If that were extended across the rest of Austria, you suggest could happen. Do you have an indication of what the total bill that would need to be funded might be? I know you don't know who might fund that, but do you have an indication of what that total cost based on current commodities could look like this year, next year?
You've also mentioned, you know, windfall tax from other countries. I just wanted to clarify that I know previously, you know, the Austrian authorities had taken the notion of a windfall tax off the table. Can you just please clarify that your understanding that within Austria, the prospect of windfall tax is still off the table? The other thing I wanted to ask you about was, there were some comments from a line on Bloomberg earlier, from, I think from a previous conference earlier today, where you were talking about the separation of gas from renewables with regarding the energy market. Can you please just clarify what you think is the best outcome for the power market regarding, you know, marginal pricing, and your views on how that might develop? I'll leave it at that. Thank you.
Yes. I'll start with the last one, the separation of gas. Olly, you might remember the discussion we had on the last conference call. I basically stated that in my view, any change in the merit order needs to be synchronized across Europe. We have a very complex system within the Core Region, where the entire energy market depends on their respective neighbors. You know, there are very complex algorithms which basically calculate system stability across Europe. Now, you know, if you were to introduce a change in merit order in one specific country that would not be synchronized with all the other countries, that would basically create chaos.
It worked in Spain because the Spanish market is relatively separate from other markets, but it would not work in a place, you know, that is in the middle of Europe. It would not work in Austria, nor in Germany. Therefore, you know, if the European Union would consider a modification of the merit order, it needs to be done in a synchronized way. That is the first point. The second point is, you know, windfall tax. I mean, there's so many different words to describe, you know, how you could take excess profits from energy companies. You mentioned off the table. That is something I cannot confirm.
There has been comments from the Ministry of Finance, even from the Prime Minister, you know, that the special dividend, you know, basically covers the point. You know, I'm not in a position to exclude, and I want to be totally transparent and fair to you. I cannot exclude that, you know, something would be introduced, if that something would be in 2022, if it would be in 2023, what it would look like, I have no idea. I don't know. I cannot exclude measures, as this is a very intense discussion, not just in Austria, but across Europe.
A lot of people are suffering from the very high energy prices, and as a result of that, media focusing on it on a daily basis, and that puts a lot of pressure on political decision makers. On the price caps, I'm going to be brave now as I'm sometimes, you know, doing these conference calls. I can give you a figure. You know, that figure could be different, but if you did a simple model, and you basically look at a cap of around 3,500 kWh across Austria. You will talk about cost of something around EUR 2 billion.
You know, it could be slightly higher, but that would be sort of like a, you know, a simplistic calculation. How would those EUR 2 billion be financed? I don't know. That is something, as far as I know, the Ministry of Finance is currently, you know, analyzing and thinking about.
Super. Thanks. That's very helpful.
You're welcome.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press zero and one on your telephone keypad. The next question is from Thibault Dujardin, ODDO BHF. Your line is now open.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Maybe as a follow-up, if you could drive us a little bit on the EUR 2 billion that you just mentioned in terms of potential cost, and then what we could expect as market share for VERBUND. If it's possible for you to give us a bit more detail on this constellation. Also regarding the sales and earnings trend that we have seen in the first half, which has been, of course, weak because of the rising wholesale market prices. Could you tell us if we should expect it to remain very efficient over the next 2 quarters? If there were specific elements in the first half that might eventually offset each other in the second half of the year. Thank you very much.
Would you be so kind as to repeat the second one? Because I had kind of an echo, and if you don't mind, the first one I got. You asked for sort of like, you know, more clarification on the EUR 2 billion, which I mentioned before. Could you please repeat the second question?
Yes, sure. Second question is regarding the sales & earnings segment, the one where you posted -EUR 166 million in the first half of this year, versus EUR 66 million last year. My question is, to understand if, of course the trend is normal considering the rising wholesale market prices, but I would like to know if there is any element that were a bit specific to this half, and that might eventually offset each other by the end of the year. Or if the trend should remain difficult in this segment, by the end of the year, considering the high wholesale market prices for the sales segment.
Yeah. Okay. I will come back to the EUR 2 billion. I'm already regretting that I said it because I should have known that there is going to be a follow-up question. You caught me there. On the second one, on the sales segment, Andreas will give you a detailed response on that one. Okay. Now, the EUR 2 billion. You know, as I mentioned before, that is a simplistic calculation in terms of taking, you know, taking the retail consumers in Austria. You basically take the consumption, what we call the base consumption of the 3,500, and then you can basically adjust, you know, the cap. Then you would come up with, you know, it depends where you put the cap.
Could be 2, could be 2.5 billion, but something, you know, in that ballpark, in that order. Now who would be hit in terms of financing that, by how much is impossible to say. You know, there are, the Latins say, variatio delectat. There are so many different variations to the theme. It could be the taxpayer, so it could be socialized. It could basically come from the general budget. It could be partly financed by the higher taxes, which the ministry earns. You know, higher petrol prices, higher energy prices.
You know, the energy bill, you know, when you look at the energy bill, you know, a relatively high percentage is basically taxes and all those taxes, the tax income has gone up. It could be financed by that as well. It could be financed by the energy sector, but, you know, by people on the sales side, by people on the generation side, by a combination of both. As I said, there are so many different ways that at this point in time, it's impossible to say.
The important message to your questions was that I wanted to be totally transparent, and I didn't want to because somebody made a statement in terms of, you know, it's off the table, and I want to be careful there, because that is something I don't know, and that is something, you know, I'm not in a position to predict, because those decisions have not been made by, you know, by the political decision makers. I would say from changes in the merit order next year, potential decoupling of the gas price, maybe in conjunction with some sort of capacity markets, different measures in different countries. You remember that quite some time ago, the EU has already come out with a toolbox. There are many different possibilities.
Now over to Andreas on details on the sales side.
Thibault, we had this negative impact, let's say valuation impact in the sales segment coming from the derivatives valuation. We've always had that in the past, but based on the strong price increases, especially for specific products, I'm coming to that in a second, and also because of the high volatility, the impact this time is higher. This time there is this negative impact basically coming from specific products, which we basically entered into in order to reduce risk. It's basically the hedging of the German-Austrian price spread. It's products also for hedging the pumping spread, and to a certain extent, also the monthly fix, the monthly hedging.
Because the prices have increased so strongly, especially at the end of last quarter, we have here an impact, because these products cannot be classified as cash flow hedges, and as a consequence go into the P&L. The biggest part of that valuation effect will be reverted until the end of the year, roughly EUR 120 million. The rest will be reverted next year, when these contracts are closed, the hedging swaps are closed. It's basically only a valuation effect. Based on these high price levels and the volatility, there may be also some impact in the coming quarters. That's basically the explanation.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Teresa Schinwald, Raiffeisen Bank. Your line is now open.
Hi, thank you for taking my questions. They revolve actually around the same. The change in the cost of capital and the discount rate, obviously, interest rate driven, but so far, only impacting the Gratkorn project. Can we expect a similar move for other asset valuations that are performed later this year? Is this move, the 100 basis point move, can it be expected for the rest of the group?
Yeah. You're right. Our cost of capital is going up. There might even be further increases, you know, for until the end of the year. That obviously is not just in Austria, it's across Europe. We are observing that very carefully in terms of potential impairments. This is a big but, there are so many influencing factors in terms of future cash flows, which are going to be determined by our power price assumptions as well, that you know, it is very hard to say, you know, is power price assumptions in the future going to outweigh higher discount rates in terms of the impairment calculations. Something we are analyzing and something to observe.
Mm-hmm. Thank you.
You're welcome.
We have a follow-up question from Olly Jeffery. Your line is now open again.
Thank you. This is just a simple follow-up really. Just looking at the mark-to-market prices on your hedged volumes and, I'm sorry, and the mark-to-market price for 2022 and 2023. I mean broadly you're talking about on a mark-to-market basis, say EUR 100 megawatt-hour increase. I mean, you know, using your rough rule of thumb of EUR 25 million per euro megawatt-hour, that's, you know, around EUR 2.5 billion in additional EBITDA. Is that, you know, using that sensitivity of yours, that's where you get to. Is that, you know, is that also, you know, is that roughly where you see things going if things were, say, like that on a mark-to-market basis or are there other things going on that might either increase that or decrease that, as things stand?
Obviously lots of things might change, but just looking at the things, they are, as they are today, is that the order of EBITDA increase you'd expect between 2022-2023?
You're right. The key factor would be if we assume that we are going to have average production, and you take the increase in power prices and if that theoretical increase, because, you know, there's still a lot of open volumes, then of course you would have an impact. Yeah. You could even say you would have a dramatic impact. At the same time, you know, there's still a number of question marks, i.e., you know, what is the price development going to be next year? You know, we are sticking to our hedging policy, so we're not dramatically accelerating.
If we had done that a year ago, you know, we would have left a lot of money on the table. As a result of that, you know, we stick to our hedging policy. We have the Austrian Power Grid, and we have Gas Connect Austria. There, we have on the grid side, we have the regulatory account which is going to be reduced. On Gas Connect Austria, we will in the future continue to have challenges on energy costs for the compressor stations. The flexibility products have gone up dramatically. Then again, it's always very difficult to judge flexibility products.
The sales side, Andreas has explained, but coming back to your, you know, to your key point, yes. The key influencing factor on our results are of course the power prices. If you take the open numbers, and if you multiply those open numbers with current power prices, yes, you would have a large impact both on EBITDA and of course on our results.
Thank you.
The next question from Mark Davis, your line is now open.
Yes. Hi, good morning. I have two questions on Gas Connect Austria, and especially on the build out and entry hub for gas. Could you provide us with an update on the current situation on the amount of gas supplies there and most especially whether or not you observe a lower supply from Russia? Second question, could you tell us what would be the financial impact on Gas Connect Austria if Russian gas supplies are cut to zero, and whether or not you would be protected thanks to the regulated nature of the business? Many thanks.
Yeah. That's a good point. We are in the midst of analyzing with top European specialists on global gas flows what the impact would be if much less Russian gas came into Europe. You know, as you know, Gas Connect Austria is in the heart of Europe and is connecting a lot of different countries. A lot of gas is flowing through Austria, coming from Russia. You know, that has a direct impact on capacity and of course on tariffs. So there we do a gas flow analysis.
If the extreme situation occurred that there would be no more Russian gas coming into Gas Connect Austria, the question would be, would it be replaced with LNG gas from, you know, coming from Northern Europe and from Italy? How much would that be? It would definitely have a substantial impact on the revenues of Gas Connect Austria. Now, you're right, and you said it yourself, since Gas Connect Austria is a regulated business, the regulator would then basically have to find a solution to provide Gas Connect Austria with a regulated return under all circumstances. That was your second question.
The first question was, if I understood you correctly, on the task, which we have, this is actually sort of like a granddaughter of Gas Connect Austria. This is a special purpose vehicle called ASGM, that has been contracted by the Republic of Austria, to provide a strategic reserve for the country. Because of their official status, they need to be very transparent in terms of what they do and how much they have already put into storage. I can tell you exactly what the latest figure is. They have contracted 20 terawatt-hours of gas, so that would be approximately, you know, 2 billion cubic meters of gas, at a relatively high price.
They have done it in two different tranches. There was an open bidding process, and those 20 terawatt-hours are the sort of like the latest figures from like two days ago.
Okay. Just a clarification please. These 20 terawatt-hours are from Russia?
The 20 terawatt-hours, they don't have sort of like, you know, a marker attached to it, so we don't know where the gas is coming from. This is, you know, this is basically contracted out to traders. It could be, it could theoretically be partly from Russia. It could be LNG, it could be from other sources. It could be from Netherlands. It could be from anywhere.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you.
There are no further questions. I hand back to you, gentlemen, for some closing remarks.
Yes. You know, as always at this point, I would like to thank you, not just for participating in our conference call, but also for the lively discussion which we always have, your important and interesting questions, and I look forward to speaking to you again for our next quarterly conference call. I wish you a very relaxed, hopefully not too stressful, summer. Nice vacation and talk to you soon. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attendance. This conference has been concluded. You may disconnect.