Big Six energy provider ScottishPower announced a sharp fall in earnings at its main UK arm, but saw profits double at its green energy unit.
The firm, which has 5.5 million gas and electricity customers, said underlying earnings at its generation and supply operations slumped 17.8% to £184million in the first nine months of the year due to a fall in coal production.
It said its coal output was cut by 20.8% as new Government carbon taxes came into force encouraging energy firms to burn cleaner fuels.
But the Spanish-owned company added that underlying earnings its renewables unit, doubled to £221million over the period, as operations such as its wind farm at West of Duddon Sands boosted production.
In February, ScottishPower cut gas prices for customers on its standard tariff by 4.8%, making an average saving of £33 on annual gas bills.
This was part of a round of cuts implemented by all the Big Six firms – the others being British Gas, EDF, E.ON, npower, and SSE.
However, in June new energy secretary Amber Rudd wrote to the major energy suppliers asking them they pass on double-digit falls in gas and electricity costs since the start of the year.
But there has not been another round of cuts from the country’s major energy firms, who argue their prices are competitive and their investment costs are high.
ScottishPower announced at its full-year results in February that it lost 200,000 customers in the previous 12 months, reflecting consumers looking for lower deals at smaller energy firms.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been investigating the energy market since last summer.
ScottishPower, which is owned by Spain’s Iberdrola, also said today it had awarded 13 new maintenance contracts for its electricity networks worth £196 million over four years, that would support 400 jobs and create 150 new trainee posts.
Keith Anderson, ScottishPower chief corporate officer, said: “Iberdola’s third quarter results show that onshore and offshore wind can be significant contributors to the UK’s generation mix, but with coal power generation now uneconomic given the impact of government obligations, the priority should be for a government framework that enables investment to steadily realise a new generation of gas power stations to provide base load.”
Overall, parent firm Iberdola posted a 5.8% rise in underlying earnings over the period to 5.4billion euros (£4billion), as growth in its international businesses more than offset a fall in its home market.
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