Stockholm - Operating profits for first-quarter 2008 were flat while turnover increased, Swedish state-owned energy group Vattenfall said Tuesday.

Operating profit before tax and interest was 11.4 billion kronor (1.9 billion dollars), up 0.2 per cent on the corresponding business period 2007.

First-quarter turnover increased 9 per cent to 45.4 billion kronor.

"The group's stable operating profit can be attributed to a strong improvement for Business Group Nordic," Vattenfall chief executive Lars G Josefsson said in a statement.

He noted increases from Swedish nuclear power plants and hydro power plants.

A milder winter dented income from heat sales, Vattenfall said.

In Germany, electricity generation was impacted by outages at the Brunsbuettel and Kruemmel nuclear plants as well as disruptions at a coal-fired plant in Jaenschwalde.

Josefsson said it remained unclear when the German reactors were due to be back on line, but noted that the group had managed to stem its loss of customers in Berlin and Hamburg.

The problems at Brunsbuettel and Kruemmel and price hikes in June were factors that led to the loss of 250,000 clients last year, he said.

Vattenfall said it also had to pay more for carbon dioxide emission rights in Germany and Poland.

Vattenfall said it generated 1.5 per cent more electricity in the quarter with increases from hydro power, fossil-based sources and wind power.

The group, which has operations in the Nordic region, Germany and Poland, had 32,510 employees at the end of March, slightly up on the same period in 2007. (dpa)