REN's Q1 2026 Net Profit More Than Doubles to €36.2 Million on a Storm-Hit Comparison Base — EBITDA Up 11.1% to €143.2 Million as Chile Contributes, CESE Gas Levy Disappears and Electricity Demand Hits a 14.6 TWh First-Quarter Record

REN — Redes Energéticas Nacionais closed its Thursday after-market window with a Q1 2026 net profit of €36.2 million, up 150.7% on the storm-hit €14.4 million Q1 2025 print and the company's strongest first-quarter result in three years. The print arrived alongside an 11.1% EBITDA jump to €143.2 million, a 29.9% capex pullback to €48.5 million, and a 2.43% average debt cost on a €2.4 billion net-debt book — a clean operational rebound on a comparison base that had been hammered by the late-January-to-mid-February 2025 comboio de tempestades.

The storm-base effect explains roughly half the headline jump

The Q1 2025 comparable was a structurally low number: the storm chain that ran through Storm Herminia, Storm Ivo and Storm Konrad knocked the gas and electricity transmission infrastructure into OPEX-heavy repair mode through January and February 2025, suppressing EBITDA and pushing the storm-affected quarterly net profit down to €14.4 million. The Q1 2026 print therefore reads as the clean operational baseline plus a regulatory-asset-base re-pricing tail-wind, rather than a true 150% earnings re-rating. Rodrigo Costa's management team flagged the Plano de Desenvolvimento e Investimento da Rede de Transporte de Eletricidade (PDIRT-E) 2026-2035 capex envelope as the structural driver of the back-half year, with the RNT-Hidrogénio hydrogen-network feasibility studies moving onto the live regulatory calendar.

Two tax tailwinds did the rest of the lift

The earnings call quantified two specific tax tailwinds: the Contribuição Extraordinária sobre o Sector Energético (CESE) for the gas business has been eliminated, freeing up roughly €10 million in 2026 tax relief versus the comparable; and a favourable court ruling on the 2022 CESE case for subsidiary Portgás released an additional €4.1 million benefit into the Q1 line. Together the two tax adjustments add roughly €14 million to the bottom line — meaningful in a quarter where the absolute net-profit print is €36.2 million. The regulatory-allowed-revenue tail-wind running through the RAB repricing now locks the rest of the year into a structurally higher earnings range above the €159.8 million 2025 full-year net profit.

Demand and renewables ran a record quarter underneath the print

The operational tape sat at a record. Electricity consumption hit 14.6 TWh — the highest first-quarter reading on record, surpassing the prior 2025 peak of 14.1 TWh by 3.8%. Renewables supplied 80% of that consumption, with the mix split 38% hydroelectric / 32% wind / 6% solar / 4% biomass. Gas consumption grew 10.3% in March year-over-year, driven by combined-cycle gas turbine demand serving the electricity-generation peak. The 14.6 TWh print is the macro signature of the data-centre / electric-vehicle / industrial-electrification demand cycle that EDP also flagged on Wednesday's earnings call.

What this means for foreign residents

• Pass-through pricing: REN's regulated tariff revenue is the input that ERSE bakes into the access component of every Portuguese electricity bill. The PDIRT-E 2026-2035 capex envelope flows through to the eventual access tariff via the multi-year regulatory smoothing — modest unit-cost upside is the structural read.
• Grid resilience: The 29.9% capex pullback in Q1 is largely a phasing effect, not a structural cut. The storm-resilience hardening the company committed to after Storm Kristin sits in the back-half capex profile.
• PSI dividend exposure: REN's regulated-utility profile and stable dividend make it a defensive PSI anchor — for foreign residents who hold Portuguese equities through a domestic broker, REN is the one stock on the index where 2026 earnings visibility is locked in by the regulatory calendar.
• RNT-Hidrogénio: If the hydrogen-network feasibility studies clear regulatory review, the 2027-2030 capex envelope steps up — the structural read for Portuguese energy-transition infrastructure is positive.

The Q1 print clears the storm-base effect cleanly and re-anchors consensus 2026 above the €159.8 million 2025 full-year mark. The next data point on the REN calendar is the Investor Day typically held in October, when the 2027 budget framework lands.