Gas and oil-fired power stations dominated SSE's generation mix in April- June, with unfavorable weather patterns and a weak economic climate reducing the amount of electricity produced from renewables and coal plants, the UK utility said Thursday.
Total electricity output from gas- and oil-fired power stations rose more than 81% on the year to 4.40 TWh in what is the first quarter of SSE's fiscal year, SSE said.
Its 2-GW Fiddler's Ferry coal-fired plant did not produce any electricity due to bearish market conditions, SSE said. A year earlier, coal plants generated 410 GWh of electricity.
Electricity output from renewable sources, including conventional and pumped storage hydro electric schemes, onshore and offshore wind farms and dedicated biomass plant, fell to 1.51 TWh from 2.2 TWh, "reflecting differences in weather between the two periods," SSE said.
Looking ahead, SSE continues to expect its 588-MW Beatrice offshore wind farm in the Outer Moray Firth, Scotland, to become fully operational in 2019 and expects the second multi-fuel plant at Ferrybridge power station, with capacity of 70 MW, also to be fully operational by the end of 2019.
"We believe the tone of the statement shows SSE is increasingly confident in the outlook for future growth," RBC Capital Markets said in a research note Thursday.
"In particular, we highlight that SSE is progressing on major growth projects such as the Caithness-Moray link and the Beatrice offshore wind farm," the analysts said.
Furthermore, SSE reiterated its capital and investment expenditure estimates of around GBP1.75 billion ($2.3 billion) in 2016-17 and fall to a range of GBP5.5 billion-GBP6 billion across the four years to March 2020.
Also, the utility confirmed that the stake sale in the SGN gas distribution company is under way. The company said in its preliminary statement in May it was considering the sale of up to one third of its 50% stake.
