SSE profits to rise to £1.5bn on higher energy bills

“The prospects for investment in generation assets in Great Britain are not encouraging,” it said, warning that important details needed to invest were yet to be confirmed.

In a statement, SSE said it expects to deliver “an increase in adjusted profit before tax which is in line with the consensus of analysts' forecasts” of £1,535m. That would be an 8.8pc rise against £1,410.7m reported last year.

The forecast of profit and dividend increase comes despite both declining energy usage and customer numbers, and is likely to be seized upon by the Labour party as evidence of a broken energy market.

SSE said electricity consumption fell 4.3pc in the nine months to the end of December while gas consumption fell 9.5pc. The company also lost about 250,000 customers.

Alistair Phillips-Davies, Chief Executive of SSE, said: “It is encouraging that SSE is on course to deliver real growth in the dividend and increases in adjusted earnings per share and adjusted profit before tax.”

He claimed he was also “very encouraged that this is a financial year in which the concerns of bill-payers have been put at the heart of the debate about how to meet the country's energy needs”.

Mr Phillips-Davies reiterated calls for all green levies on energy bills to be funded from general taxation instead.

SSE also warned that its investment rate – which has historically been between £1.5bn and £1.7bn a year – was likely to decline in the five years from 2015.

It announced “a wide ranging review of its offshore wind development portfolio by the end of this financial year” after the proposed Galloper and Beatrice offshore wind farms were not deemed “provisionally affordable” and eligible for early subsidy contracts by the government.

“This is one example of why there is greater uncertainty about the shape and extent of SSE's capital and investment programme in the five years from 2015, and it is likely to be lower than the £1.5bn to £1.7bn range invested in each of the years since 2010,” it said.

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