SCOTTISHPOWER has set itself at odds with rival SSE by pledging there will be no hiatus in its renewables programme even though the industry is waiting for details of a planned energy market shake-up.
The UK accounted for 28% of profits at ScottishPower's parent Iberdrola last year, the group revealed, just behind the 30% of earnings from its home market in Spain. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation at ScottishPower rose 3.7% to £1.2 billion in 2012, helped in part by a 7% rise in customer numbers.
Some two pounds out of five that Iberdrola is spending on investment is being directed to the UK, including a record £1.3bn this year, of which £550 million will go towards renewables.
Iberdrola chief executive Ignacio Galan said: "We are investing more here. 2013 will see a record investment in this country."
Six years after snapping up Glasgow-based ScottishPower for £11.6bn, he said its plans to spend £10bn in the UK over the next decade are akin to buying the company all over again.
Mr Galan said there was "more certainty than a year ago" over Government energy plans but he called for clarity in areas such as support for proposed gas fired power stations.
ScottishPower's chief corporate officer, Keith Anderson, said its UK renewable business, which is working on 35 projects, would continue its expansion. "There will be no hiatus," he told The Herald.
ScottishPower's approach contrasts with that of Perth-based SSE, owner of Scottish Hydro Electric, which has long warned of a possible investment hiatus, and last week said spending could "fall off a cliff".
Mr Anderson said pricing for onshore wind generation is certain up until 2017, so it will go ahead with projects such as the 96-turbine Kilgallioch wind farm in south-west Scotland which now has planning permission.
He said ScottishPower is also keen to press on with offshore wind farms such as West of Duddon Sands off Cumbria.
The Government's plan to unveil draft pricing plans for renewables in the summer and confirm them by the end of the year fitted ScottishPower's timetable, he said. But he said that if there are delays, the existing renewables obligation regime could be extended.
ScottishPower can afford to be slightly more relaxed than its rivals because, after building its first wind farm 21 years ago, it has got a large onshore wind presence. Its rivals tend to be more reliant on new capital-hungry offshore projects.
One area of concern for ScottishPower is capacity payments for conventional power. It has planning permission for three new gas power stations in the UK, including at its coal-fired plant at Cockenzie, East Lothian, which will close at the end of next month. Mr Galan said: "A power plant is not completed in 45 days but three years. We are doing our job in planning and design. But the go-ahead depends on the framework."
Mr Galan said he picked up an increased sense of urgency within the corridors of Government at the prospect of black-outs when old power stations are taken out of service.
Iberdrola saw profits in the Spanish market, where it supplies 10 million homes, plunge 36%, which it blamed in part on regulation. But continuing growth overseas, including at ScottishPower, which has 5.6 million retail customers, meant net profit ticked up 1.3% to €2.84bn (£2.4bn).
Its debt fell €1.4bn to €30.3bn after it concluded €850m of €2bn planned asset sales. This has allowed it to rule out the sale of a stake in its UK regulated power business, which houses its electricity distribution and high voltage transmission arms.
It also has cash to launch the buy-back of 2.4% of its shares.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article