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The future of the Longannet coal-fired power station in Fife “has come under question” in Iberdrola’s latest results.
In the Spanish utility’s nine month results (Q3) for 2014, it stated that high transmission charges in Scotland have made it uneconomic for Scottish Power to bid the 2,400MW plant into the UK’s capacity auctions due to take place in December – threatening the plant’s future.
This comes despite “improved” availability and performance at Longannet following investment totalling more than £200 million in recent years, including £20-£30 million last summer on boiler upgrades.
The UK generation and supply arm of the Spanish owned utility saw net profit increase from €17.9 million in the first nine months of 2013 to €85.1m in 2014, within which net losses in generation were reduced.
Scottish Power’s energy supply business maintained a “steady” profit margin of 4-5 per cent in this period.
On the network side of the UK business, net profit in the first nine months of 2014 fell to €336.5 million from €438.2 million in Q3 of 2013, although Ebitda rose 10.5 per cent to €727.3 million.
The Iberdrola Group suffered a fall in net profit of 19 per cent to €1.831bn from €2.274bn from Q3 in 2013, although group Ebitda rose 1.4 per cent to €5.210 billion in Q3 in 2014, up from €5.139 billion.
This was largely attributed to the impact of a combination of regulatory changes in Spain and drought in Brazil only being partially being offset by a better performance in generation and in renewables.
Iberdrola has improved its projections for 2014, with Ebitda now expected to exceed €6.6 billion for the full 2014 year.
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