Yahoo News SSE rakes in 'offensive' £4million a day in profits as fuel bills soar
Scots energy giant SSE has raked in an “offensive” £4million in profits PER DAY while people struggle with bills and fuel poverty. The Perth-based firm made £714million in pre-tax earnings in the six months to September, latest financial results show - equivalent to £3.92million every day.
Campaigners also questioned SSE’s green credentials amid its controversial bid to build a second gas-burning power station at Peterhead.
Anti-fuel poverty group Warm This Winter said the public are sick of energy companies making “obscene sums” while Scots worry about heating their homes. It’s calling for a new social tariff offering cheaper discounted deals to the most vulnerable - paid for by taxing industry profits.
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We previously revealed how SNP ministers are working with suppliers in a new taskforce to explore how a social tariff could work in Scotland. If green-lit, it could mean cheaper bills and support for those already struggling with fuel poverty like low-income families and pensioners.
Warm This Winter spokeswoman Caroline Simpson said: “How is it fair that energy companies keep raking in millions in profits? We know SSE made over £7billion since the start of the energy crisis whilst there are 6.5 million Brits in fuel poverty and all of us are paying 60 percent more on our energy bills than we did three years ago.
“The public knows the only way the UK will bring down bills in the long-term is by harnessing our renewable energy sources and properly investing in home insulation to free us from volatile fossil fuels for good - and they are angry that the industry continues to make obscene sums whilst so many people are scared to switch the heating on.”
Almost a third of all households in Scotland are living in fuel poverty. And nearly a fifth of Scots homes have slipped into “extreme” fuel poverty.
SSE said its interim financial results were partly driven by an earnings boost for its renewables division - and vowed to continue its £20billion investment programme in “clean power infrastructure”. But eco campaigners poured scorn on the firm’s claim to be a green energy “champion”.
Despite renewables including wind and hydro making up nearly half its energy generation, activists highlighted how SSE still operates 16 fossil fuel plants across the UK and Ireland. And recent research claimed a new Peterhead gas station could produce five times more climate pollution than the companies disclosed in its planning application, which is currently with Scottish ministers for approval.
SSE and partner firm Equinor insist the plant’s emissions would be offset by carbon capture technology. Friends of the Earth Scotland climate campaigner Alex Lee said: “SSE’s offensive profits show that our energy system is only benefiting these greedy giants and their wealthy shareholders.
"Fossil fuels are costing us the earth and are increasingly unaffordable to both people and the planet. SSE’s dodgy plan to burn gas at a new Peterhead power station risks trapping us all in this rigged system with volatile prices set by international gas markets for the next 30 years or more. SSE must come clean about the true climate impact of its plans at Peterhead.”
Alistair Phillips-Davies, SSE chief executive, said: “This is a strong set of interim results including delivery of higher-quality earnings and the mission-critical infrastructure that shows SSE is at the heart of the clean energy transition. We are also encouraged by the increasing attractiveness of our main markets and our alignment with the new UK Government’s mission to achieve clean power by 2030.”
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