Power giant SSE has criticised government plans for reforming the UK electricity market for failing to address the risk of shortages.
The government published plans for reform last month, just as Ofgem issued a warning over the security of the electricity supply in forthcoming years.
But the company, in a trading update ahead of its annual meeting, said the reform proposals would leave the energy market facing a period of uncertainty.
“It is vital that the right balance is struck between keeping open existing electricity generation plant and making the electricity market economic for new plant,” the company said in its interim statement.
“The UK government’s intention to defer delivery of the capacity market until 2018/19, however, means that the next few years will remain uncertain for both existing and new plant, and does not address the risk of imminent shortages.”
Since April the company’s only large-scale power generation development has been in Ireland, where it is constructing a 460 megawatt combined-cycle gas turbine plant due to start operation next year.
The company saw the number of UK customers drop slightly in the last three months, down to 9.46m in the second three months of 2013, compared to 9.47m a year previously.
Electricity consumption dropped slightly to an average of 920kWh, down from 940kWh the previous year, although wholesale output increased to 2,219GWh.
The amount of energy produced from renewable sources also rose by 32%, to 1756GWh.
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