Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of PGE Management Board, I would like to welcome you at our today's conference focused on the results of the second quarter, 2022. The situation in the energy sector is so dynamic that it's hard to comment on latest issues. We decided, therefore, to prepare our responses to the questions that you keep sending us and that are the most relevant nowadays. At the end of this session, we will also have a Q&A part. As the person who represents Investor Relations department, I will try to be fair in giving the floor to the press, investors and analysts. In today's conference, we have President of the Management Board, Wojciech Dąbrowski, Vice President for Finance, Lechosław Rojewski, and Director of Financial Division, Piotr Sudoł.
Let's go straight to the presentation. Mr. President, the floor is yours.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We are meeting today to sum up the first half of the year in the operations of PGE. We are meeting here to present to you the events of the latest months and our financial results in the group. We would also like to talk about the events we experienced. As you well know, recent months saw a significant instability in the energy and fuel markets. This was also the time of threat, menace that is hanging over the whole Europe and Poland. We know what is going on beyond our eastern border, and those events have major impact on the economy of the entire European Union, including Poland.
Therefore, the situation requires enormous operational involvement on our part in most areas of our activities. It also has an impact on conventional energy results, as you might have seen, because the preliminary information regarding our results was published yesterday. As for the financial result, that will be discussed in more detail by Lechosław Rojewski. We also have Piotr Sudoł, who is the Director of Financial Division, and he also will be able to answer those questions. The growing energy prices mean an extremely difficult situation for the energy sector, for us and for the entire economy. It is also difficult for our clients. As we are all aware, economy is a system of communicating vessels, so that has an effect on households. Therefore, the situation of the whole sector is difficult.
That is why we support all initiatives that come from the government, from the Ministry of Climate and Environment, Ministry of State Assets, and we actively participate in the dialogue with the ministries. We are also consulted as the leader in the electro-energy sector and the leading producer of energy and heat in Poland. We are also consulted on matters related to the shelter solutions that are being planned and that have already been introduced by the Polish government. These are the solutions aimed at sheltering end users as well as the most exposed energy-intensive sectors. Not all of those solutions have already been presented, but probably there will be a significant number of these in order to alleviate the situation caused by the war in Ukraine, caused by Putin.
The crisis, the fuel crisis caused by the approach to gas on the part of Putin translated into price spikes throughout the world. That's simply translated also into the growing cost of electrical energy and heat. Of course, we wish our neighbors in Ukraine to win over the aggressor, Russia, who invaded Ukraine. We hope that then the situation in the fuel market and in the global economy will calm down, allowing us to think more calmly about the future. Nevertheless, I would like to stress that nowadays the situation is unstable and difficult. We are consistent in pursuing our strategy which envisages transformation of Polish energy.
This target of climate neutrality by 2050 is the goal we are striving to achieve. Although this target date of 2050 seems remote as of now, we will take every step in order to achieve it. We know our strategy, you know our plan, you are familiar with our major investments. These, the topics on which I can give you some more information if you wish to hear anything more, but these data also included in your materials, anyway. I think that would be just an introduction. You know well that we receive a lot of questions from you, from newspapers, from industry organizations, non-governmental organizations. The media are mainly interested now in coal imports to Poland.
We, as an important element to the state energy security, and as a group that owns a specialized company, PGE Paliwa, which has for years been specialized in importing fuel to Poland, large scale trading, wholesale imports of fuels to Poland. By the decision of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, we have been obliged to import such quantities of coal so as to ensure security of fuel supplies to the utility sector and individual users. This coal from imports is intended to fill the gap that emerged after the Polish government imposed sanctions on government of Russia. That is cutting off imports from Russia in order not to fund this war machinery of Putin. The Polish government was the first to side with Ukraine, with democracy and freedom.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced sanctions against Russia. As a result, a gap emerged in the market, and we as Polska Grupa Energetyczna have been tasked with filling this gap. On this slide, we are showing a timeline, including also the volume of coal that we intend to import by the end of April 2023. We intend to. Now we are at 2.5 million tons. New ships are on the way. From September month, by month, we will import 1.1 million tons monthly, about 25 ships, which is a huge logistical operation. We, as PGE, will import more coal than all Polish companies that imported coal historically until now. Therefore, it is a major organizational challenge for us.
I can assure you that we will be able to cope with it. We have specialized, very competent employees in PGE Paliwa who are mainly dealing with the burden of this major task, but also the entire group is supporting them. At the level of headquarters, we also established a working group that monitors online the entire process, supporting everyone involved in that in order for us to cope with this task and to deliver the coal we are supposed to deliver.
Okay. To preempt your questions about the price of coal, which is a very specific, let's say a piece of information. We sell at about PLN 2,100 plus VAT to our customers, to institutions and intermediaries, utilities, heating plants, local heating plants. Back in May, end of May, I asked the utilities to provide the consumption data for coal so that we can possibly plan our activities. This has not triggered a big wave of response. We don't know why. I believe that the management authorities of those utilities and local governments did not act very much responsibly. We have renewed our request. We sent out letters as PGE Paliwa, in which we offered our services for coal supply in the public space. This, that's not.
It was not done by you, who are a very proficient journalist, but rumors were circulated in the public space that coal was not available. However, this is not the case. We are ready to supply to anybody who wants to actually buy from us, and we want to launch selling coal to business operators. The minimum quantity for delivery for those operators to buy would be 25 tons, which is one lorry, so it's not a big deal. This will be actually serviced by a large-scale logistics operation, because so far we were involved in large volume procurements, and we supplied also large volumes to large customers up about 100,000 tons. Now we reduced this customer base to sole traders, and everybody could buy from us directly 25 tons of coal minimum.
At present, we have not been prepared for this logistically. However, to all utilities, to all local governments and heating plant operators, we are absolutely prepared, ready to sell the coal to. Next step, we are going to open towards smaller businesses, smaller operators. Now, ladies and gentlemen, another question that has been circulated in the media for a couple of days now is, let's say, unsubstantiated gossip or information. I don't know why, because normally media will be very, subject matter-oriented as dictated by media ethics.
I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that when it comes to coal quality, contrary to the videos that we can see in the internet with a chap who picks up a handful of wet coal or wet powder, coal powder, to stigmatize the coal that we imported, I'd like to officially inform that this coal was imported by an unofficial importer, whereas we do it from very proven suppliers, and we've been doing this for years. Every shipment is checked at the dispatch harbor and at destination. This is done by an independent qualified laboratory, certified laboratories. The quality of coal is verified by international institutions, independent laboratories who are obliged to transmit credible data.
I would like to emphasize once again that our coal is very high quality as when it comes to its calorific value and other parameters. Today, we have coal from Colombia, Indonesia, and Australia with various features, parameters, and properties. Colombian coal is, at this moment, the most preferred one by our clients because this is closest to the coal that our clients have been using so far, like the coal from East. We also import coal powder by ship, and we sift this coal in the harbors, in the ports. We separate higher grades, and we're going to combust this powder in the power generation plants, whereas the bigger fractions will be sold to individual clients.
We have concluded agreements with 20 coal depots who on our behalf run the sifting process and then are involved in further redistribution from those depots to individual clients, who then would buy those larger fractions and combust them. The amount of the higher or bigger fractions in the powder is about 30%-40%. We predict that this would yield some 3 million tons of coal that is suitable for individual clients. This is how we fulfill the task that Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki imposed on us, and we will continue to pursue the energy supply security to secure the coal supplies in the coming heating season. As I said, we are determined to provide fuels for heating Polish homes regardless of the temperatures.
I'd like to once again assure all our clients that PGE is definitely committed to fulfilling this task and that we'll make sure that coal will be available without restrictions in the coming heating season. We are not the only company that supplies coal. Węglokoks is another one, but our competencies have been the greatest, the most suitable, and the most proven for you. This is why we decided to shoulder this task. Another question which is also very important that has been alluded to in your questions and also has been circulated widely in the media is the power sector. Usually people speak about the power sector only if the situation becomes difficult. This is why we have been put on the headlines of the media.
Our clients normally treat the supply of heat and electricity as something natural, something that is taken at face value. However, today's situation, namely high prices of energy sources and energies as such throughout Europe at large. By the way, you know, ladies and gentlemen, that Poland boasts the lowest prices of electricity throughout the EU. Nonetheless, the aggression of Russia against Ukraine led to or resulted in Putin's ability to dictate the prices of energy sources to Europe. As the power sector, we are part of the Polish economy at large. We understand the situation. We've become very committed to resolving this problem hand in hand with the public administration and our clients. Without emotions, without panicking, without being overly nervous, without that nervousness, we want to bridge that difficult period. I assure you once again, that situation is under control.
The situation is also very dynamic. You might have heard that now we are facing another threat on the part of Putin, who is threatening more military interventions in further countries. The developments change dynamically, and we, as a key component of the energy sector in Poland, are safe. Our systems are operational and functioning as they should. We can assure you that we will supply with electrical energy and heat as planned to all Polish companies and households. There is another topic. Coal carve out is something that might be of great interest to you. That is a very topical project nowadays to our operations. This another project for the National Energy Security Agency is being pursued on schedule.
The Ministry of State Assets is in charge of this process, and I will give you only as many details as I can reveal. I can say that the process is running on schedule. I'm not authorized to reveal any details regarding this process. I can say that a due diligence process is now underway. The assets that are subject to this transaction are being examined operationally and legally. This work is being done by an external consultant, separate for each company covered by the process. We are coming to an end because in fact only very few issues remain to be discussed with representatives of our social partners.
In fact, most matters have already been discussed, and on most clauses of the agreement, an agreement has been reached, and the final provisions are being fine-tuned. Overall, this process is moving on very smoothly, and I hope that very soon the entire content of the agreement should be approved. Another process that has started is the valuation process. This will be the basis for the final decisions, corporate decisions, on the part of companies that are selling their assets and, on the part of the state treasury, that is buying the assets. I also believe that this venture will come to a successful end soon.
Nowadays, it is gaining particular importance because it will allow us to provide two-pronged security to energy sector, because on the one hand, it will allow focus on production of energy from conventional sources. We, Enea, Tauron, and Energa will be able to invest even more in renewable energy sources as well as in distribution. We will be able to go deeper into debt and obtain more financing under project finance or in some other schemes. Here the decisions will be made case-by-case, depending on each particular project. As I have already mentioned, our investments are running on schedule in accordance with our assumptions.
Regardless of any restrictions or limitations imposed on us by the war in Ukraine, by the pandemic, by COVID, we are moving forward. Nowadays, we see the greatest impact from the war in Ukraine, which drove prices of steel, coal and the components used in our investments. You might also recall a certain outflow of employees who were involved in the implementation of our investments. We had Ukrainian employees who returned to their homeland to fight for the country. Today we see a decrease in prices. It does not translate yet into a ready made product, but we hope that soon you'll see this impact. We also see a general decline in prices and a certain calming down of the market.
As regards other things, we are happy about the recent decision of the European Commission, who supported Baltica 2, Baltica 3 at a level not higher than the requested price, PLN 319.60 per MWh . Before you ask this question, is that enough? The price will be adjusted by inflation rate. In real terms, it will be higher by some 17%-18%. I hope an order will be issued by the Minister of Energy and Environment, changing the exchange rate between euro and PLN.
Because when we applied for this, the exchange rate was different from what it is now, so it has to be taken into account and adjusted by making this exchange rate in line with the current situation. As a result, the value of the contract will be higher in real terms. At the end of August, we selected a contractor for a construction project. This is being done by a Polish company and the Danish company Ørsted. We are talking about Baltica 2 and Baltica 3. This is being done for us as a joint activity with a Polish partner that is responsible for obtaining all the necessary permits for the offshore part of Baltica project. Last week we also started environmental impact studies for Baltica 1.
This is being done by an institute in Gdynia and we are at an advanced stage of selection of sea turbines. We also develop our personnel by deepening our cooperation with institutions, universities. In June, for example, we signed a letter of intent with the Institute of Hydro-Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences. We also have cooperation with Gdańsk University of Technology. We signed a letter of intent with the authorities of the Gdańsk University of Technology, and that paves the way for subsequent projects, which will be beneficial also to the offshore wind energy center that we are developing. That is to show you that we are very active in developing our capacity in terms of staff and its competencies.
The clients have disposition.
That would be it, and at the end, I will be able to answer any questions you have. Now I give the floor to Rojewski.
Ladies and gentlemen, to quickly summarize the financial results for H1, and I will focus in particular on Q2 of this year, starting with the electricity market in Poland, by describing various factors affecting prices in four segments. Then I'll move on to the factors influencing EBITDA. I will also summarize our debt. Finally, I will focus on the capital projects and the predictions for the second half of 2022. As we said earlier on, the electricity market, the Polish National Power Grid, as you can see, the presentation, has seen increase in the production of electricity in Q2. In relation to Q2 of 2021 was high by 2.5 TWh, 6%.
When it comes to the growth in consumption between the two quarters of 2 years, we have seen an increase by 1.5%. This was higher than the growth in the local consumption and resulted in the increased exports. As you might have seen, Poland is, has been and still is one of the cheapest countries when it comes to electricity price. The next day market price of electricity remained at about PLN 400 per MWh and was much higher than the German market. This is why the balance of trade went down by 1.9 TWh. Compared with the same period of 2021, the exports of electricity amounted to 750 MWh. Let me remind you that in the same period in 2021, Poland was an importer of electricity.
In the second quarter, the increase in demand for electricity in the power grid was covered by renewables. This is because renewables, especially photovoltaics, saw a twofold growth this year from 5 kWh to 10.3 GWh. For conventional power plants, the greatest increase in production was in the lignite sector, amounting to about 4% annually. Early in the second half of the year, the situation changed because, as you know, Poland is gradually becoming an importer, a net importer of electricity. Now, if we look at electricity market from the point of view of prices, then we see the second quarter was marked by the growth in the prices. In May and June, we saw that for base contracts for 2023 those prices went above PLN 1000 per MWh.
As you know, ladies and gentlemen, moving on towards July and August, that price went up significantly again. This was due to high fuel costs, fuel prices. Let me remind you that as the conflict in Ukraine erupted, coal's price was above $300 per ton, but a transient price of gas that was driven below PLN 100 per MWh started rebounding very quickly. Now, relating or speaking about the CO₂ prices, those prices stabilized between EUR 80 and EUR 90 per ton. Now, when it comes to unfortunate growth in the price of combustible fuels, such as coal and gas, this led to the producers who have a fair amount of fixed costs, namely who generate electricity from lignite. The margins for those producers were quite stable.
Of course, we could have assumed that the raw materials and energy prices in the market, which are referred to as PLN 1,000 per MWh, would actually remain at that level. However, the following months actually verified that with the price going as high as PLN 2,500 per MWh. By the way, the prices, the same price in Germany, reached EUR 1,000 per MWh. Very high electricity prices resulted in concerns about the general business situation, and the EU decided to intervene in the electricity market, followed by a correction prices by 50% in the German market, driving the price down to EUR 500 per MWh. The electricity exchange market price for 2023 are about PLN 800 per MWh.
Now to summarize, the operational results of the second quarter and individual segments. For PGE in Q2 of 2022, we saw a reduction in electricity generation by about 5%.
This resulted from the reduced production from gas units and from the energy produced from hard coal. In the case of gas units, that was 50% reduction. In coal, that was 19% down year-on-year. This structure resulted above all from the fact that the operator mainly used lignite unit production. We have to stress that we had some downtime for renovation in the units producing coal energy. That is units five and six in Opole. It should also be stressed that we see a slow growth in production from renewable energy sources. This upward trend results mainly from better weather conditions. As for distribution, in our case, the distributed volume dropped by 3% versus a nationwide growth in energy consumption by about 1.2%.
In our assessment, the main reason that is responsible for the decrease in the amount of distributed energy is the structure of users in our area. We have the majority of individual clients, and in G tariff we could see the greatest decrease, namely about 4% year-on-year. We link this mainly to the fact that the clients under the G tariff use more and more energy from renewable sources, that is, from photovoltaic farms, and we have about 1 GW prosumers. If we look at retail sales to our end users at the end of second quarter 2022, just like in previous periods, we could see a downward trend, about 8% down. This is mainly in the G tariff.
Because of the weather conditions, higher temperatures in that period, with about 1.6-degree growth in the average temperatures, we recorded lower sales of heat by about 0.8 PJ, which is about 8%. If we now move on to the main drivers of EBITDA value. At the beginning, I would like to say that in the second quarter, we saw a decrease in margin on electrical energy and heat production. This was linked to a significant increase in fuel costs, coal and gas. These costs went up by about PLN 550 million, which eventually meant that the value of production on energy and heat was lower by about PLN 200 million year-on-year.
In the second quarter, we also recorded a decrease in our margin on services provided to the electrical energy market. This was about a PLN 63 million decrease due to lower revenues from the power market. Here we recorded a decrease on contracted rates that we planned for 2023, as well as a decrease on revenues from regulatory systemic services, mainly because of lower revenues from reallocation of power. I should also comment on CO₂ emissions rights costs. The costs to those rights increased by about PLN 73 million per ton. We have costs related to CO₂, and the growth here was by over PLN 2.7 billion.
It is worth noting here that we saw in the trading sector a higher margin on energy sales and a slight impact to the higher margin and distribution segment coming from higher rates under the distribution tariff. A significant element, which also affected our EBITDA was an increase in personnel costs. These costs increased in the second quarter by PLN 167 million, and this is the result of collective bargaining agreements that we signed, and we established a provision for these costs. To sum up, EBITDA, recurring EBITDA in the second quarter dropped by PLN 468 million year-on-year. While reported EBITDA increased by over PLN 700 million, and that was mainly driven by the dissolution of recultivation provision.
Yet, I would like to reiterate that this was not directly linked to cash flows. The dissolution of this recultivation provision was to the amount of PLN 2.1 billion. It was linked to greater profitability on long-term bonds, and based on this profitability, we established our discount rates for individual periods, 15, 20, 25 years. Those discount rates changed for those respective periods. Higher values on operating profit and net profit in the recent quarter mainly come from this one-off event I have already mentioned, namely dissolution of the recultivation provision. Let's move on to CapEx in the second quarter, 2022. Unfortunately, here we recorded a decrease in CapEx by PLN 143 million. This is linked above all to lower expenditures in the conventional energy sector.
Let me remind you that last year we handed over for use our unit seven in Turów, and hence we have those lower expenditures by about PLN 300 million in this segment. With regard to heat, here we also have lower expenditures, but these are mainly connected to the construction of gas unit in Dolna Odra. That is a project pursued under PGE Gryfino 2050. By carving out coal assets to the future National Energy Security Agency we will keep this company within our group. In heat heating sector, we have growth resulting from the construction of a new unit, Siechnice Heat Plant.
Due to the issuance of bonds amounting to PLN 3.2 billion, we could accelerate CapEx distribution in the distribution segment. You will see in the coming periods a fair rate of acceleration. We have tenders running for various business operations in the distribution sector, and we are going to spend more on those. For renewables, due to the construction of PV farms, we have committed quite a number of resources there. Recently, we also paid for the acquisition of three wind farms amounting to 84 MW. When it comes to our debt, we can say for the first time in this period of time that our net cash is positive.
We have seen this also in this Q2, but this is a transient period resulting from the fact that PLN 3.2 billion from shares have been actually posted to that amount, and they will be gradually spent on the projects that are going to be financed by that issue. The EBITDA in the Q2 of 2022 amounted to about PLN 1.6 billion. The provision for CO₂ adjusted by cash spending amounted to PLN 1.4 billion. On the CapEx side, we saw about PLN 1 billion of those. If we include that three wind farms that we have acquired, amounting to PLN 304.7 million, we will see PLN 1.77 billion. Please remember that net cash at the end of Q2 does not reflect the actual debt level. This is because of the CO₂ settling or settlement cycle.
Our real debt, which also includes CO₂ payments and settlements, amounts to PLN 9.8 billion. The adjusted net debt, adjusted for EBITDA, is 0.9. A few words on the future, outlook for the future and all four segments. Let's start with conventional generation. Why do we see a negative prediction there? This is mainly because of the expected raw materials prices. In particular, the coal, the hard coal price. As you know, this has materialized, and if we take into consideration the price of imported coal, we predict doubling of costs in this year compared with the previous year. This is when we lower the EBITDA perspective for this segment. Now, district heating. We have also accounted for the twofold increase in the cost of CO₂ and also the price of natural gas.
In this sector, the market situation that has actually bottomed out after the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict, we see or we predict 150% or 200% increase in the costs, which drives the price of gas up to PLN 900 per MWh. We are, however, optimistic when it comes to renewables and supply. In the renewable sector, we expect higher spot prices as well as including pumped storage plants, so we expect a positive result of this segment. Since we have also high prices from supply, we have elevated the perspective or the prediction for the supply sector from negative to positive, in contrast to what I presented to you in Q1.
For distribution, we believe that it will have a stable perspective, stable outlook, in spite of certain volatility of atmospheric conditions, which will probably lead us to changing this perspective, this prediction. Knock on wood, as of today, the distribution perspective is developing in the right direction.
I believe, Mr. President, thank you very much, that we are going to swiftly move to Q&A. We have questions that kept coming yesterday and today, so we will quickly go through them, and then we'll give you the floor, ladies and gentlemen. The first question regarding what we spoke of today, that would be of interest to executives of PGE to accelerate the transfer of assets to NABE. We see today a higher margin on conventional generation in this year, and it will also continue in the next year. The outlook is optimistic. For some people, it will be tempting to see this option materializing, namely to postpone the transfer of assets. However, given our responsible attitudes, we are going to follow our plan through consistently.
The perspectives for NABE are going to be good in the coming months, thereby enabling a sound and good kickoff for NABE. We therefore are not proposing any postponement of the transfer of the assets, even though it will be a tempting idea. The ministry wants to carry it out according to the original schedule. Next question goes to President Rojewski, and it will cover or it will focus on the coal prices. What is the increase in the price of coal driven by, and why didn't we secure those coal prices beforehand?
Let's remember that the situation worldwide has changed due to the outbreak of the armed conflict in Ukraine. Therefore, deliveries of this raw material from some directions stopped, and that's the right thing that should have happened. In our domestic market, we had secured our prices and the contracts from our supplier, mainly from the Polish Mining Group. However, the situation in global markets and the increase in the price of this commodity meant that the demand for coal here in Poland increased. Consequently, the prices of coal started growing dramatically as well. Now look at this from the perspective of the Polish Mining Group, which has to ensure both the raw material for individual customers and wholesale recipients and the energy sector.
They started to increase their prices. As a result, we faced the choice, either we use only imported coal or we start negotiations with domestic suppliers who wanted to negotiate prices with us. Let me remind you that in other markets, coal is traded at $330 per ton. Well, in relation to the price we have here in Poland, it is significantly higher. We have therefore operate on averages of those prices. We have some coal that comes from a national supplier and some of the volume that we acquire comes from imports. Probably, most probably, this price in the future will be higher.
Thank you. Another question related to the previous one and one that is quite often asked. Is the agreement with PGG regarding coal prices achieved, and what prices have been contracted? Do we know the price of coal for 2023?
The price for 2023 is known. We cannot reveal you this price, but we have achieved an agreement with Polish Mining Group. We will use other suppliers as well, and partially we will rely on imports. As regards that was the price about the price for 2022, and the price for 2023 is not finally confirmed yet. However, we already have some preliminary arrangements regarding the level on which this price will end up. I'm not authorized yet to make any announcements. We have not concluded the final agreement.
We are in a dialogue with the Polish Mining Group, and both the Polish Mining Group and we are very understanding towards each other. We are the biggest recipient of the Polish Mining Group, the largest recipient of coal in Poland in general. Bearing in mind the volumes that we use in our units, we can benefit from favorable price, more favorable than those offered to other recipients, because of the volumes that we combust. Of course, we would love to have those prices even lower, but we do not have this ability to turn the tide and stop the events developing in the economy. Anyway, the price of electrical energy in Poland continues to be the lowest.
Our clients are probably not satisfied with its level, but still, the price in Poland is the lowest. The prices are published daily, and the Polish government, as well as we, are making every effort to ensure that the prices are as low as possible for customers. We should expect increases next year.
Thank you very much. Now we have a more financial focus. This leap increase in interest rates and our investments, our CapEx as well. Given those high interest rates, can we think of any higher CapEx?
Yes, we can think of higher CapEx. Indeed, the cost of money increases, debt cost increases. The cost reference rates of the National Bank of Poland increase, WIBOR increases, and as a result, we have higher cost of funding. However, when we planned our investment program, we had secured those funds, and one key element was our bond issue, that is PLN 3.2 billion. About half of that, PLN 1.6 billion, is to be spent on capital expenditures and distribution. The entire process related to cabling, to meters, to other investments that are needed in our distribution sector, all that is secured financially. For distribution or acquisition elements, we will also try to obtain debt funding in the form of loans.
We are aware that when considering any particular investment and particular expenditure, we have to take into account the cost of money and the rate of return we can expect.
On any particular investment. Also, our bonds and euro bonds loans have their interest rates hedged, and the loans that we have from the European Investment Bank usually have fixed interest rates. In the upcoming future, we do not expect any problems in obtaining funding. Of course, taking into account higher cost of money over time.
Thank you very much. I promise to keep balance between the questions asked by representatives of various institutions. Yes, any questions from those present in the room?
I have a few questions. I don't know whether I should ask them all at once or one by one.
Just try to be concise and allow us to give you a concise answer as well.
Okay. I ask them all at once.
I'm not sure that I'll be able to answer them all. You are always so demanding.
It's going to be a very powerful stream of cash in connection with the sale of coal. Can you reveal the margin on the carve-out of coal, the sale of coal? Just like you disclose your margin on other segments. You mentioned those various grades of coal in the entire volume of 10 million tons. What is the grade in the 1.5 million tons that we have already imported? Impact of the regulation, the systemic regulation on the situation of the group. As you wrote in your statement sent to the Ministry of Climate and Environment, wholesale prices, we will have a decrease in wholesale prices. In that case, are you considering canceling the contracts that were concluded with parent companies?
I'm asking this because the greatest rise now affects small and medium enterprises. The question is, what will happen to them? Are you talking with the government about any sheltering program for small and medium businesses under C11 program? One more thing that did not occur before. A very significant increase of remuneration for the management board from PLN 2.9 million to PLN 4.9 million. Is that related to Polish, what? This new governance system?
All right, I'll start one by one. The margin. The margin of this operation has been optimized, and it's optimum now. This is the minimum margin. We expect that this margin would only cover our operational expenses. We are not going to generate extraordinary profits on that operation, on that deal. Because this is a kind of a relief effort for the Polish consumers. We have been appointed by the Polish Prime Minister to be in charge of that relief operation. We are not going for the maximization of the profits. We focus on covering of our costs. When it comes to imports of coal, the proportion is. Let me rephrase that.
We are supplying the bigger fractions at this moment, according to our clients expectations, and we produce, we sift those higher fractions as ordered in accordance with the contracts that we have concluded with our clients, and we still have capacities to produce more of those bigger fractions, larger fractions. This is why we decided to launch the supply to individual business operators going down to 25 tons as a minimum charge for small businesses. So far, we have been selling 25-ton batches to institutional clients such as utilities, schools, kindergartens, and also smaller intermediaries and the coal trade to local governments, local administration and utilities, heating plants.
Now we want to also extend it on the sole traders, and they will have to declare that they procure that coal for their own needs and not sell it down the line. This further sale will be prohibited. They would have to have a license to act as coal intermediaries. When it comes to the incoming solution in the coming days or even hours. Let me rephrase that. As of today, the government, the Ministry of Climate and Environment and Ministry of State Assets who operate or regulate the market, want us to conduct the business in such a way as to optimize the production costs. Let me emphasize that our main business objective is to supply the highest quality service at the most acceptable price.
Although the changes or the turbulence in the market, when the prices are outside our control, it was triggered by Russia. Russia is responsible for those exorbitant prices that happened suddenly in terms of gas, natural gas and coal, and many other things. This is why we have provided for cushioning activities. We started with the balancing market, which will also translate into the wholesale market. Also, other solutions are in the pipeline from the Ministry of Climate and Assets and other ministries. We are going to see various solutions being implemented after certain tests. We want to see how the market would respond. We live in a free economy. We have eliminated centrally controlled economy three decades ago, so we'll definitely impose some mechanism to restrain the prices on the wholesale market. This will definitely be the case.
As far as the cushioning activities for the businesses, we believe that the solution that was consulted with us, and we support it, and we are quite enthusiastic about its effectiveness, as well as the others, which are still in the pipeline and have not been yet put forward for debate because they are still shrouded in secrecy in the ministries responsible. I believe that this mechanism will definitely drive the wholesale price of electricity down and allow the individual traders, businesses to buy at lower prices. I don't know the pipeline yet, but I can expect a mechanism, market-based mechanism, to be applied so as to reduce the wholesale price, so that medium and smaller businesses can enjoy electricity at lower prices.
Because our objective is to maintain employment, to maintain competitiveness of the Polish economy, and our electricity businesses are not aiming at actually killing our or exterminating our clients. Fortunately, the power sector is still in the government's hands because that help the government control the situation, the playing field at large. If that had not been the case, private companies had been in charge, it would be driven by maximization of profits. Even those, they wouldn't want to run the businesses, the customers down, and prevent the situations where the clients stop paying because that would actually preempt our downfall. We also use the exchange, commodity exchange for trading and to know how the prices are being shaped, are being influenced by the exchange, electricity exchange. On top of that come the EU prices.
We know that the most important unit generating the energy dictates the price actually. These are not businesses that are part and parcel of PGE. Even though PGE is the biggest producer, and people speculate that PGE dictates the prices, this is not true. We adjust our prices to those prevalent in the exchange. You know that, editor, because you are recognized specialist in the electricity market. Off the mic. All right. On average, as the colleagues shared, I assume that on average, this average price from all our units. This is the average price from all our units.
All right. Thank you. The next person asking question.
This is the result of low base in 2021, where we had not disbanded the reserves.
The Management board headcount was six, and in Q1 in 2021, we had five people on the board after President Strączyński resigned. End of May and early June, this position was vacant. Actually, it was vacant, and only then the next president took over. We are not going to see any increase in the prices. The Polish Deal has put a cap on our revenues, on our wages, actually. You know what we receive in terms of salaries. PGE is not the leader company when it comes to those salaries. We are the lower tier of the large companies remuneration-wise. These are the gross amounts, which are not sure yet, not certain yet.
Our colleagues, the financial director, also mentioned that the financial situation of the company will indeed impact that.
This Polish Deal scheme limited, in fact, our remuneration. There are some issues related to VAT and some other things. We have Mr. Sawicki waiting to ask a question.
I have a question about the provision, or more precisely, lack of a provision, because you gentlemen mentioned that costs of electrical energy production were higher than the revenues under term contracts on the sale of electrical energy. That is what your report says. Enea and Tauron are in the same situation. Also, the cost of energy production are higher than revenues from its sale.
Maybe I will interrupt you, because I seem to know what you are driving at. Costs are growing faster than the provisions, but it does not mean than the revenues, but it does not mean that the costs are higher than the revenues. You refer to two parts of our operations that are linked to term contracts. We have term contracts concluded on the level of the group without allocation to specific companies. We recognize the margin on the entire group, where most of the margin is generated on lignite, which does not have any other variable costs apart from CO₂ . For us, the provision established by this negative change on variable costs, and that is also in the Tauron and Energa.
Just like Rafał asked the question, I would like to repeat this question because I have the impression you haven't fully answered it. The purchase of those extra 1 million tons of coal. In the report, we can read this will entail a significant need for cash. Where will this cash come from, or do you already have this cash ready to spend? Also, I would like to ask about some other legislative work that might be underway in the Ministry of Climate regarding increasing the storage of coal and stock of coal. I would like to ask you for your opinion on that. One more issue that came up last night or this morning concerning CDS and margins of coal companies.
Information was released that CDS in coal companies amount to about PLN 3,300 . Could you comment on this, and the current margins at PGE? First, let me refer to what you said about securing funds for coal purchases. Indeed, we have secured those funds, but this is not mainly our money. This is funds coming from external institutions, external financial institutions, third-party providers. On the other hand, we also have costs linked to that, and I understand these are going to be accounted for and settled under the agreement we are going to sign with the Ministry of Climate and Environment regarding the refund of those costs. As of today, we are not scared that we will run out of funds to buy the coal.
As for CDS details, our financial director will be able to give you some more information about this. Because when we talk about CDS, we are talking also about term contracts for 2023. I have already mentioned that the prices in the commodities market were high and the commodities exchange were high. At the same time, the costs following the cost of commodities, mainly the cost of hard coal and gas were high. Please keep that in mind. As for CDS structure, I give the floor over to my colleague. I do not know which details you are referring to. This information was about which year or what kind of breakdown.
If we refer to a simplified CDS, this is publicly available data, value of the base contract for 2023, and the current value of CO₂ contract and PLN, euro to PLN exchange rate. That is the so-called simplified CDS that should take the basic things. I would not like to comment on the full breakdown of costs, including CDS. The simplified energy price minus CO₂ is something that anyone can calculate for any day. Just remember to compare apples with apples. If we are talking about the rate for 2023, you look at forward quotations for this period and also euro to PLN exchange rate. Yes, please remember these commodities that would be the full calculation of our marginal production. Our time is running out.
We have a question from Director Chojnacki.
I would like to make sure if I understand correctly what you said. In this planned import of coal at 10 million tons, some 30% could be coal for individual users and the remainder for some other purposes. Am I right in thinking so? Yes, I do confirm. The second thing is, I would like to ask you for some comment on the potential impact on the Polish energy prices coming from this draft regulation of the Council of the European Union on reducing energy consumption. I'm mainly interested in this obligatory part at rush hours, at peak consumption times, and the tax on generation sources when the wholesale price exceeds PLN 180 per MWh. What is your position on this point?
Last thing is about availability of units of the group, because your report and some other information regarding your group mentioned some things related to coal units which reduced their operations. Do you still have this phenomenon?
Thank you very much. Let me start from the end. We did not reduce our production because of a shortage of coal. This was a planned reduction due to renovation work conducted in those units. There was not a moment when PGE or any other energy group, as far as I know, did limit its production because of that. As regards the EU solutions, the solution mooted by Mrs. von der Leyen, that is EUR 180 per MWh .
You mentioned those extraordinary profits and then another issue related to savings. As far as I know, the Ministry of Climate and Environment has somewhat modified proposals. That is, it modified the ones put forward by Ursula von der Leyen. We do not know what the final outcome will be, but we will accept any solution that is announced. This has not come into force yet, so we can say that there is nothing wrong in saving electrical energy. I do not see anything untoward in saving electrical energy, in particular, given the situation in which we are now. I believe that this will have a positive effect on the market if we all reduce, whenever we can, our energy consumption.
As of today, we are not facing the end, the threat of shortage of energy, just the other way around. We do not see any such threat, and I would like to dispel any concerns our clients might have. We do not face any risk of any disturbances to the supplies of energy and heat. We do not see any such threat. We use coal from the Polish Mining Group, and we support this by imports. We also receive supplies from producers other than the Polish Mining Group. PGG remains the biggest producer, but there are also other mines. On top of that, in terms of gas, Polish Mining Group mainly uses the gas from PGNiG resources.
Gorzów and Zielona Góra mainly represent the greatest consumption. In Toruń, we have other supplies of gas. As of now, we do not see this as a threat. However, we do not know what Vladimir Putin does in the future. If he threatens that he's going to annex more territories of the neighboring countries, we do not know what's going to happen to system gas. In case of Zielona Góra, we are safe because we have fossil gas.
Thank you. I don't see any impending threats. However, the situation is far from being comfortable for everybody. It's very volatile, but we are still in the driver's seat. EUR 150, as far as we can hear, that would be realistic. If this were to be a little bit higher, it won't be a problem when it comes to Polish production. It's not us who consume coal, it's not PGE only. There are also other operators who use imported coal only, and we see $350 per ton as a price of coal. That leads to increased production cost. I believe that other business operators may have a problem with that price. We generate majority of our electricity from lignite. We are a huge holding.
We are a huge group which can weather through this difficult period with much more ease. On a consolidated balance sheet, we are still on the surface. Of course, the tariffs are a pain in the back for us. We are subject to the Polish Energy Regulatory Office. We are still contemplating a huge CapEx program with PLN 180 billion to be spent in the next decade. I believe that what is the most important thing for us are the consumers' purses, their ability to receive electricity and heat from us. We're also concerned with the future security of supply. Most of our power units are about 40 years old.
They will have to be put offline, and they will be replaced by offshore, by alternative generation capacities. We are thinking about replacing them with other sources, and it will cost a lot of money, PLN billions. If we want to maintain our energy and military security, we need to spend on military equipment, on electricity. We don't want to sit in the darkness and in the cold because it's not only Putin who wants to dictate his conditions, imposes his conditions on us, but also our other neighbors. Perhaps not as brutally as Russia, but our Western neighbors also want to dictate an electricity price to us.
Our overarching objective is to maintain the power generation in Polish hands to avoid any future situation of when someone dictates or twists our hand, our arm, and dictates the prices. Therefore, we expect support from our shareholders. We want to still maintain our strong position in the market to generate not only good security of supply, but also good return on shares, on stock. I've been always maintaining that investing in our stock is a very good investment with very good yields going forward. Of course, the stock exchange has their own pros and cons, but I assure you that we are on the safe side, and investing in our stock is a safe investment. Thank you very much. We are very pressed by time.
To maintain this equilibrium, gender equilibrium, I give the floor to that lady. Thank you very much. I'd like to make sure that I heard you correctly, that no threat of blackout looms ahead, and that you are positive about the prices in the wholesale market. Absolutely. We are going to see the effects of those solutions having been implemented because the market is flexible, and we're going to closely examine what is going on in the market, and the ministry will probably adjust their proposals to the market situation. What we have so far evaluated is that it will probably drive the prices down in the long-term market. How about the prices up to 2,000 kW? This is neutral for us as a generator, as a producer. This has an impact on the customers only.
This is a governmental program aimed at providing a cushion for the final customers. 2 MWh is the average consumption of households in Poland, and 2.6 MWh for those who are disabled or are farmers. For the PGE, for us selling that at that frozen price, we'll be compensated for that effort. What is the share of the imported coal in your mix, in your consumption? I ask that in the context of the gossip that the power sector is buying cheap Polish coal and then generates huge margins. 10H liberalization, well, we were always in favor of 10H. We have projects that we have put on the back burner and our position here is quite strong. We also need to respect neighborhoods. These CapEx projects must never be detrimental to the comfort of life and the surroundings.
This bill is still in the parliament, and it will be decisive for any possibilities to build onshore. We are in support of that because this is going to be a next step in the transformation of the Polish power sector. We have this as part and parcel of our strategy as well, onshore. Okay, the share of the imported coal in our business. This is small, relatively small. PGE is also a regular business earner, so we are obligated, as are the companies acting under the business law, to generate profit. The Polish Mining Group, PGG, they need also to respect the current situation, and they need to benchmark with the European price. I cannot. I must not disclose this information, but when we entered into the contract with PGG, we have respect, we have to respect this extraordinary business environment situation
Which probably makes the price refer to the international market prices. However, we are not living on an island in the ocean. We are integrated with the EU and world economy, so these prices will definitely be impacted by the market situation. You are suggesting with your question that we buy the coal at half price, and then we dictate exorbitant prices. No, it's not the case. It's not half price. I cannot tell you, however, what the actual price is.
Okay. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen who arrived at this conference. Also, we thank the internet viewers. We're aware that we couldn't possibly answer all the questions, but following our tradition, we will answer those as part of activities of our press office. Thank you very much.