Scottish & Southern Energy today said it added 700,000 customers in the year to the end of March after being the last of the major suppliers to increase prices in the latest round of energy bill hikes.

Scottish & Southern Energy today said it added 700,000 customers in the year to the end of March after being the last of the major suppliers to increase prices in the latest round of energy bill hikes.

Perth-based SSE, the UK's second biggest domestic energy supplier, said it now had 8.45 million customers and pledged to keep offering "consistently competitive prices".

SSE posted a 13.9% rise in underlying pre-tax profits to £1.23 billion for the year to March 31.

It upped gas and electricity prices by more than 14% in March, but was the last of the top six suppliers to increase tariffs.

However, it joined rivals in signalling that prices will rise further this year.

It said the industry had seen unprecedented rises in input costs and "cannot defy gravity" if wholesale gas and electricity prices continue to rise at the same pace.

Wholesale prices have increased by around 10% a month each month since November, mirroring the rocketing cost of oil, said SSE.

Chief executive Ian Marchant said: "We have seen probably the biggest increases in our input costs that our industry has even seen."

SSE, whose businesses include Southern Electric, Scottish Hydro Electric and Swalec, said that it hoped its promise to be "one of the last or the last" to raise prices and "one of the first or the first" to cut tariffs would see it break through the 9 million barrier for customer numbers this year.

SSE also confirmed that it was not interested in a bid for West Lothian-based nuclear power firm British Energy, instead focusing its efforts on nuclear new build projects.

The group said around 40% of its pre-tax profits haul came from its generation and supply operations, which saw operating profits rise 12.7% to £724.2 million.

But the division produced £14.26 billion in revenues - 89% of the group's total revenue for the year.

Its generation business, which includes Irish wind farm Airtricity bought last year for 1.5 billion euros (£1.19bn), produced 45.8 terawatt hours of electricity last year.

SSE's operating profits for its electricity and gas networks rose 16% to £544.4 million and 2.9% to £14.3 million for its telecoms networks arm.

Earnings for its contracting, connections and metering division lifted 7.8% to £55.6 million.

The firm has earmarked around £1.3 billion this financial year towards investment in renewable energy, other electricity generation, its electricity and gas networks and gas storage.

It also announced today that it aimed to halve the carbon intensity of power generated by 2020, upping its previous target to cut it by 20% by 2016.

Meanwhile, SSE is facing two investigations by energy regulator Ofgem, after an inquiry was launched into the electricity and gas markets in February, followed two months later by a probe into SSE and rival Scottish Power, based on a formal complaint to the regulator alleging abuse of a dominant position in the electricity generation sector.

SSE said today it was co-operating fully with Ofgem and "remains confident that its actions in electricity generation have always been consistent with the operation of a competitive market".