Italian utility Enel advanced its hedging over the final quarter of 2015 but its forward power selling rates still slightly lagged the previous year’s levels, the company said in its full-year results on Wednesday.

Enel said it had hedged 75% and 85% of its expected Y+1 output in Italy and Spain respectively, up substantially from 60% and 40% at the end of Q3 2015.

But this still left the company’s hedging rates somewhat below those of end-2014, by which time Enel had hedged 75% and 95% of its expected Y+1 output in Italy and Spain.

Enel didn’t break down its sales or generation figures by region, but said its global power output was virtually flat at 284.0 TWh, compared to 283.1 TWh a year earlier.

Utility hedging rates are closely monitored by participants in the EU ETS because the data can provide a window into existing and future EUA demand from the bloc’s biggest allowance buyers.

Enel said it would raise dividends after its net profit jumped 325% to €2.196 billion, following major writedowns to its assets in its previous annual results.

The company will make a major foray into the telecoms sector, revealing plans to invest about €2.5 billion to build a fibre-optic broadband network across Italy.

By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com