The owner of energy giant ScottishPower has revealed that UK generation and supply earnings have sunk by 76% after losing around 100,000 customers in the first half of the year.
ScottishPower saw customer numbers drop to 5.3 million in the first six months of 2017, down from 5.4 million over the same period last year.
Spanish parent Iberdrola said the UK supply unit had also been hit by milder weather conditions and the closure of the Longannet power station in Fife, Scotland.
It said domestic power sales were down by about 7% and domestic gas sales dropped by around 8%.
It caused earnings in UK supply generation and supply unit hit £48.8 million for the period, down from £205.9 million for the first half of 2016.
Keith Anderson, ScottishPower’s chief corporate officer, said: “In Retail, we have seen fierce competition in the UK and we expect this to continue for the foreseeable future.
“Even with this backdrop, our customer numbers are stable and we have still retained more of our customers over the last five years than any other large supplier.”
Iberdrola’s group revenues for the half year rose 1.8% to 15.2 billion euro (£13.5 billion), while gross margin increased by 1.1% to 6.9 billion euro (£6.1 billion).
Net profit climbed 4.2% over the period to 1.5 billion euro (£1.3 billion).
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