Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Sunnier weather burns £80m off SSE’s earnings

Colorful hat nad bag on the beach
Colorful hat nad bag on the beach

Energy giant SSE has blamed Britain’s heatwave and soaring wholesale gas prices for an earnings hit of around £80 million.

The Big Six supplier – which is merging its energy and supply business with rival Npower – said households used 10% less gas than expected over the its first quarter to June 30.

But SSE said trading has also been hit by poor wind conditions, which have affected its wind farm energy production, as well as “persistently” high gas prices.

It warned that the first quarter knock to underlying earnings could affect its annual results, depending on market conditions for the remainder of its financial year.

There was a further blow as SSE also revealed another steep fall in household accounts as customer switching continues apace, losing another 130,000 accounts since the end of March.

Its total UK and Ireland energy customer accounts stood at 7.45m as at June 30, down from 7.77m a year earlier and 7.58m in March.

The group became the last Big Six provider to hike bills in May, announcing that electricity and gas bills will rise by an average of 6.7%, or £76 per year, in a move affecting 2.36m customers.

The tariff rise took effect on July 11.

SSE chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies said: “This new financial year has so far been characterised by lower-than-expected output of renewable energy and persistently high gas prices, but, looking ahead, we are very focused on fulfilling our obligations to energy customers and delivering on our key priorities.

“Those priorities include successful delivery of our plans to invest around £1.7 billion in this financial year.”

SSE’s latest earnings woes come after a tough past financial year, when it saw underlying pre-tax profits fall 6% to £1.45bn, while bottom-line profits tumbled 39% to £1.09bn.

It lost 430,000 customers and was stung by charges linked to the merger of its retail arm with rival Npower.

In its first-quarter update, SSE said it was still on track to complete the Npower deal by the end of its current financial year to March 31.