The company behind a controversial offshore wind project in Aberdeenshire posted a loss for 2013 despite slashing operating expenses by more than £300million.
Vattenfall suffered losses of £606million for the year after logging £2.8billion in impairments for the year, largely driven by costs from its gas and coal plants owned by Dutch subsidiary Nuon.
The Swedish state-owned firm posted a small rise in underlying profit, however, up 1.3% to £261.6million for the year.
Vattenfall has been cutting back on its energy investments in recent months, selling off its majority stake in Hamburg’s electricity grid and its Polish assets earlier this year.
“The positive outcome from previous years’ forward hedges and successful cost-cutting measures have compensated for the negative effect of lower German wholesale electricity prices and higher costs for purchases of CO2 emission allowances,” said chief executive Øystein Løseth
“Vattenfall’s production portfolio, with a large share of hydro power, nuclear power and lignite-based power is very profitable, and through our efficiency improvement measures we have created a solid foundation for successfully continuing to carry out the shift to an environmentally sustainable energy production.”
Last month the firm, along with its partners in the European Offshore Wind Deveopment Centre planned for Aberdeen Bay, announced plans to appeal a block on siting a substation for the £230million windfarm project at Blackdog.