The cancellations came shortly after the company announced a sharp decrease in earnings from conventional power.

In the third quarter of 2013, RWE introduced capacity measures of roughly 2.3 gigawatts.

It included the company’s decision to close the 1.3GW combined cycle gas turbine Claus C power plant in the Netherlands.

In mid-2013, RWE released plans to terminate long-term supply worth 1170 megawatts between Q4 2013 and Q4 2014.

The company now says it will terminate a further 1025MW of contracts with German coal-fired power plants by the end of 2014.

The terminations mostly relate to contracts with Germany’s fifth-largest power producer, Steag.

RWE chief financial officer Bernhard Gunther said at current market prices, 20-30% of RWE’s power plants were unable to cover their operating costs.

The company recorded impairment losses of €4.8 billion in 2013, half of which were related to its Dutch generation portfolio.

The impairments resulted in a net loss of €2.8 billion, the first net loss in 60 years.

RWE chief executive Peter Terium said the trend of falling earnings from coal and gas-fired power plants was “irreversible”

He added that he expected the pressure on conventional power generation to continue.