For the year ending 31 March 2013, the energy company expects to report a rise of 4 to 5 per cent in pre-tax profits and a dividend rise of 2 per cent above RPI. The retail, wholesale and network businesses are all on course to make a profit.
That is despite a slight drop in customer numbers in the past nine months, from 9.55 million to 9.46 million. Average customer consumption of both electricity and gas rose due to cooler weather conditions.
The firm’s gas-fired electricity output dropped to 6.4TWh from 18.6TWh in the first nine months of last year, due to planned work at Keadby and Medway and low “spark spreads”.
Coal output rose from 10.7TWh to 13.6TWh. Renewables dipped from 5.3TWh to 5.2TWh as a surge in wind capacity was offset by a 40 per cent fall in hydro output due to rainfall returning to average.
The Energy Bill is having an impact on future investment, SSE said. Due to uncertainty over electricity market reform, the company is delaying decisions such as that on a planned 470MW combined cycle gas turbine at Abernedd. It does not expect to determine the plant’s fate until the second half of 2013 at the earliest.
Ian Marchant, chief executive of SSE, said: “This financial year has been characterised by continuing economic uncertainty and challenging energy market conditions which have affected energy customers and electricity producers alike. SSE’s balanced model of market-based and economically-regulated businesses and strategy of focusing on operations and investments in these businesses is again proving to be robust.
“The overall performance of the company has been good in 2012/13 and I’m pleased that SSE is on course to deliver further growth in the dividend and an encouraging increase in adjusted profit before tax in this financial year.”