Scottish Power reveals loss of 120,000 customers

Scottish Power has reported a year-on-year loss of 120,000 customers and a drop of 71 per cent in EBITDA in its liberalised business.

Releasing the figures for its second quarter Scottish Power revealed a fall of £117 million in EBITDA for the liberalised business, which comprises largely of its retail arm, to £48.8 million. Customer numbers stood at 4.75 million compared to 4.87 million in Q2 2018.

The energy giant blamed a milder winter and the default price cap, which was introduced on 1 January, for the impact.

However the returns for SP Energy Networks were “on-target” as the business delivers the RIIO-ED1 distribution investment programme, which runs until 2023, and the RIIO T1 Transmission investment programme until 2021.

EBITDA for SP Energy Networks was £417.2 million, a four per cent increase of £17.3 million.

Meanwhile Scottish Power Renewables saw its EBITDA increase by £8.2 million to £213.4 million. This was due to higher energy prices compensating for lower wind volumes in the second quarter.

Commenting on the results Keith Anderson, Scottish Power chief executive, said: “A milder winter, in comparison to 2018’s Beast from the East, together with the ongoing price cap, has impacted our liberalised business.

“But a positive performance in renewables and networks at the mid-year reflects Scottish Power’s sustained delivery of innovative and green investments – the wind generation and new infrastructure we need to deliver the UK’s long-term net zero ambitions.

“As the first energy company to go 100 per cent green, we welcomed the legislation to underpin the UK’s commitment to carbon net zero, and we’ve committed to investing £2 billion in 2019 to support the race to zero.

“The UK now has the opportunity to use the Energy White Paper, expected later this year, to provide the framework that will allow the regulator, government and industry to efficiently and cost-effectively decarbonise the UK economy.”

Peter Earl, head of energy at comparethemarket.com, said last month alone almost 11 per cent of all switches through the site were away from Scottish Power.

Earl said: “It seems that the supplier is failing to keep up with the competition from challenger brands – our own research shows that in the last month alone 10.77 per cent of switches through our website were away from Scottish Power.

“We suspect that the company may have been relying on the energy price cap as an inertia-based retention tool.”