Stormy weather hits SSE’s output and delays construction of world’s largest wind farm
Renewable energy producer SSE PLC has said the bad weather that hampered its wind farms’ power generation last year could delay the completion of the major Dogger Bank A wind farm.
In a Q3 trading statement today, the firm said that construction of part of the world’s largest offshore wind farm was affected by challenging weather, supply chain delays and vessel availability, with the continuation of the latter meaning that further delays are expected, possibly until 2025.
The company said it does not expect this delay to affect the returns of the project.
SSE also said output across its 30 wind farm operations was 1.3TWh or around 15 per cent behind plan for the nine months to 31 December 2023, due to “exceptionally still and dry weather conditions,” and short-term power outages.
SSE Thermal, the group’s flexible generation, energy-from-waste and energy storage unit, saw output drop by a quarter (24 per cent) on the same period last year thanks to lower margins between the cost to produce electricity and its market price.
The Group remains on course to deliver adjusted investment and capital expenditure of around £2.5bn in fiscal 2024.
Barry O’Regan, chief financial officer, said: “Whilst the quarter has seen the business navigate some short-term challenges, we reiterate and continue to focus on the delivery of our 2027 financial and operational growth targets established in the NZAP Plus.
“The strength of our balanced business mix and the growth opportunity it provides is aligned with a policy environment which increasingly recognises the essential role renewables, electricity networks and flexible power will play in the energy system of the future.
“Our long-term strategy remains unchanged and will deliver sustainable value for shareholders and society.”
The firm’s challenges come just one day after Danish wind giant Orsted announced it will be pausing shareholder payouts and slashing costs to try and regain control of the struggling company.