LISBON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Portugal's largest utility, EDP-Energias de Portugal, posted on Wednesday a 6% rise in its recurring net 2020 profit to 901 million euros ($1.09 billion), despite lower demand for electricity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier on Wednesday, its wind energy unit EDP Renewables , reported a 17% rise in net profit to 556 million euros.

"EDP's recurring net profit was supported by renewable energy production growth ... but demand and short-term electricity market prices, as well as thermal generation, presented significant drops," EDP said in a statement.

The company, which will present its updated strategy and targets for the next four years on Thursday, said it would propose a dividend of 0.19 euros per share for 2020, in line with the previous year.

As the pandemic prompted a steep economic slump, power consumption fell, especially in the industrial sector, making electricity distribution drop 3% in Portugal, in line with similar trends in Spain and Brazil where EDP also operates.

EDP said one-off items had a net negative impact of 101 million euros last year, leading to a reported net profit of 801 million euros. That was 56% higher than in 2019, when the company had even heavier one-off costs.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 6% to 3.95 billion euros, but recurring EBITDA slipped 2%, EDP said.

As of December, 79% of EDP's 23.7 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity was from renewable sources and it had an additional 2.3 GW of wind and solar projects under construction. Capital expenditure rose 29% to 2.9 billion euros last year, 73% of it in renewable energy.

The company announced last week it was setting up a new business unit to develop green hydrogen projects, primarily in Europe and the United States.

EDP said its net debt fell 11% to 12.2 billion euros from a year ago, the lowest level in 13 years. ($1 = 0.8241 euros) (Reproting by Sergio Goncalves, editing by Andrei Khalip and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)