Press releases pg. 36

The planned outage lasted two months.

• Thanks to the production of hydroelectric sources, 528,000 tonnes of coal did not have to be burned, and therefore 495,000 tonnes of CO2 did not have to be released into the air. Such are the impacts that would have resulted from the production of the same amount of energy in conventional power plants.

• Upgrades and efficiency improvements of hydroelectric plants that help save water are also ongoing.

• For the coming years, ČEZ is planning solar parks with a capacity of thousands of MWs.

Hydroelectric plants (not including pumped storage plants) operated by the ČEZ Group in the Czech Republic generated 684 GWh of electricity in the first half of this year. The year-on-year growth was driven mainly by large hydroelectric power plants. The volume of energy from these “green” sources will cover the consumption of 390,000 Czech households for six months.

The largest source of district heating in the Czech Republic is abandoning coal. By 2030, the Mělník site, which supplies Prague, Mělník and Neratovice, will produce heat solely from low-emission sources and will thus significantly help the ČEZ Group itself, as well as Prague and other cities, to achieve their environmental commitments. The first step in the planned transformation is today's shutdown of the largest coal-fired power plant to date, Mělník III. Its closure turns the plant into a pure heating supplier. At the same time, the preparation of the construction of highly efficient steam-gas sources has commenced, with plans to employ other low-emission technologies in the future, such as biomass boilers, heat pumps or equipment for the recovery of energy from waste. These will gradually replace the Mělník II and Mělník I lignite heating plants. The planned environmental measure will not affect the quality of supplies to customers in any way.

Operating results for H1 are in line with the initial ambitions; CEZ Group increases its full-year outlook for EBITDA to CZK 58 to 60 billion and net profit adjusted for extraordinary items to CZK 18 to 20 billion. EBITDA reached CZK 31.6 billion in H1, a year-on-year decrease of CZK 7.1 billion. However, the year-on-year comparison was affected by the sale of Romanian assets in Q1 2021 and specific temporary market effects of CZK 3.9 billion due to the revaluation of hedging contracts for production supplies, mainly due to last year's drop in commodity prices on wholesale markets following the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic to Europe. Nevertheless, we have seen a positive development across all segments throughout the year, which is why we are raising our full-year EBITDA outlook to CZK 58 to 60 billion and net profit adjusted for extraordinary items to CZK 18 to 20 billion as a result.