Market sort of going side ways of late

But I'm amazed that this one has hardly moved up In the last week

30p divi due tomorrow.

Anyone else watching these?

Interim Management Statement

Operations
In the three months to 30 June 2013 (comparisons with the same three months in 2012, unless otherwise stated):

· SSE's Total Recordable Injury Rate was 0.15 per 100,000 hours worked, compared with 0.14 during 2012/13 as a whole;
· Networks: the number of Customer Minutes Lost in the Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution area was 14, compared with 17; in the Southern Electric Power Distribution area it was 16, compared with 17;
· Retail: SSE's number of electricity and gas customer accounts in markets in Great Britain and Ireland fell from 9.47 million to 9.46 million;
· Retail: average consumption of electricity by SSE's household customers in Great Britain was estimated to be 920kWh, compared with 940kWh; average consumption of gas by SSE's household customers in Great Britain was estimated to be 96kWh, the same as in the previous year. On a weather-corrected basis however, there was an underlying reduction of 2% in average household electricity consumption and an underlying increase of 0.3% in average household gas consumption.
· Wholesale: total electricity output* from gas and oil fired power stations was 2,219GWh, compared with 1,954GWh, partly reflecting the return to service of Medway; from coal-fired power stations output was 3,569GWh, compared with 3,737GWh; and
· Wholesale: total electricity output* from renewable sources (conventional hydro electric schemes, onshore and offshore wind farms and dedicated biomass plant) was 1,756GWh, compared with 1,331GWh, partly reflecting additional capacity being in operation.
· * Output from electricity generating plant in which SSE has an ownership interest (output based on SSE's contractual share).

Investment
In its Annual Report 2013, SSE set out its investment priorities for 2013/14, including commissioning new assets and meeting other construction and development milestones in its programme of investment in its Networks and Wholesale businesses. It is forecasting total capital and investment expenditure of around £1.5bn for 2013/14 as a whole. In the three months since 1 April 2013:

· Networks: SSE's subsidiary Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission has completed work on reinforcing and upgrading the transmission network between Dounreay and Beauly; in addition, the Beauly-Fort Augustus ('North') section of the 400kV Beauly-Denny replacement line has now been energised.
· Wholesale: SSE has continued to add to its capacity for generating electricity from renewable sources, including Calliachar wind farm (32MW), which has taken its total to 3,283MW.
· Wholesale: Work is progressing well at SSE's 460MW CCGT development at Great Island in the South-East of Ireland. The majority of civil works are completed, the 400-tonne transformer has been delivered, the power train has been positioned and the 60-metre stack has been constructed. The main activity is now focused on the delivery of mechanical and electrical works. The plant is expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2014.

Other developments
Since the publication of SSE's financial results on 22 May 2013:

· Galloper offshore wind farm, a 50:50 joint venture between SSE and RWE npower renewables, has received development consent from the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. The Galloper site is adjacent to the fully operational Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm, and will be taken forward with a capacity of up to 504MW;
· SSE has successfully launched a seven-year, €600m euro bond with a coupon of 2 per cent;
· SSE's subsidiary, Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution, has published a detailed business plan for the electricity distribution Price Control for 2015-23 that aims to deliver a 10% cut to the distribution network costs for customers in central southern England and the north of Scotland in 2015;
· SSE has completed the assessment of 98% of cases under its Sales Guarantee raised by around 16,000 of its customers since 3 April and, following assessments, made payments averaging around £75 to around 9,000 of those customers;
· Alistair Phillips-Davies has become Chief Executive, in succession to Ian Marchant;
· Sue Bruce, the Chief Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council, has been appointed a non-Executive Director of SSE with effect from 1 September;
· SSE has entered into a new £1.3bn Revolving Credit Facility provided by a group of ten banks. This facility - which was a self arranged deal - will run until July 2018 and replaces an existing £900m committed facility that had been due to mature in August 2015; and
· Ofgem has set out its 'minded to' position on the Needs case for the proposed reinforcement of the electricity transmission network around the Kintyre peninsula, designed to deliver around 260MW of capacity at an estimated cost of just over £200m and planned to be completed in 2016.

HSBC Neutral 1,555.00 1,546.00 1,505.00 1,630.00 Upgrades

Nice one ED!

At what price level will it stabilise ? Any views ?
I am hoping that it will stay above 1400 .

Changes to household energy tariffs from 15 Nov

Changes to household energy tariffs from 15 November

10 October 2013
· Household electricity and gas tariffs to increase by average of 8.2%
· Changes reflect increasing cost of buying wholesale energy, paying to deliver it to customers' homes and government-imposed levies collected through energy bills

SSE will implement a series of changes to its household energy tariffs on 15 November 2013. This follows increased costs of:

· buying energy in global markets (up 4% for a typical dual fuel customer*);
· paying to use the upgraded electricity and gas networks to deliver energy to customers (up 10%*); and
· government-imposed levies on energy bills (up 13%*).



More....

Results for six months

RIIO-ED1 FAST-TRACKING ANNOUNCEMENT

Friday 22 November 2013

OFGEM REQUIRES ELECTRICITY NETWORK COMPANIES TO DELIVER MORE FOR LESS

· Ofgem challenges 5 out of 6 electricity distribution companies to cut costs for consumers
· Western Power Distribution's (WPD) business plan provides good value for consumers and its price control could be agreed early*
· Ofgem price regulation will see distribution costs cut 11.6% (around £11.30) for the nearly 8 million households in WPD's areas from April 2015
· All companies responded well to Ofgem's RIIO price controls which have driven over £2bn in savings so far. Companies challenged to deliver further cost reductions

Just bought a few here at what was the 12 month low.

Future operation of thermal generation sites

SSE plc has decided to select the Limited Life Derogation (LLD) option under the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) for its remaining capacity at its coal-fired power stations at Ferrybridge (North Yorkshire) and Uskmouth (South Wales). Under this 'opt-out' derogation, the plant (defined by the stack configuration) can run without fitting further abatement technology for a total of 17,500 hours or to the end of December 2023, whichever is the earlier.

The IED is due to come into effect from 1 January 2016 and imposes emission limits of SO2, NOx and particulates on all UK generation plant. In choosing how to respond to the Directive plant operators have a number of options, including the opportunity to identify plant to take a Limited Life Derogation (LLD). This option must be exercised by 1 January 2014.

Barclays Capital Overweight 1,355.00 1,349.00 1,200.00 1,810.00 Downgrades

On edit - the note has now been changed to "Underweight" !

Interim Management Statement

Tempted to pick up some of these myself, but if the markets are due to correct following QE tapering and the usual 'go away in may' adage, then might wait awhile. Think 1200p might be on the cards.
Divi yield is very attractive, though final divi not due until July.

I hope for all the pension pots that 1200 is not reached. But would not be surprised. Mainly due to petty points scoring children playing politics.

I would be buying at 1200!!!

Good point dl. I forgot about the political side of things. My case for 1200p has just been strengthened!

1370 first please!

1370 been and gone.

OFGEM PUBLISHES EQUITY MARKET RETURN GUIDANCE

17 February 2014

EQUITY MARKET RETURN CONSULTATION: REDUCING THE COST OF CAPITAL FOR ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES

· Changes to methodology put greater weight on current market evidence
· Proposed changes will lower assumed cost of equity to 6% resulting in an assumed cost of capital of 3.8% for five electricity distribution companies in 2015-16, with further falls projected in subsequent years
· Western Power Distribution, which was proposed for fast-tracking in November, will need to lower its assumed cost of equity and therefore its cost of capital if it is to remain in the fast- track process

Ofgem has today published guidance which will reduce the assumed cost of equity and cost of capital for electricity distribution companies.

The cost of equity is an important financial parameter. Changes to this affect the assumed cost of capital, which determines the return a company can earn on its investment during a price control. We are currently setting the electricity distribution companies' price controls for 2015 - 2023.

In November, we assessed the business plans from all six distribution companies. We sent five of these plans back as we considered that they could deliver more value for consumers. The companies will resubmit their plans in March. Today we are setting out our baseline assumption of 6% for their cost of equity, resulting in an estimated cost of capital at 3.8% for the first year of the price control, 2015-16. As these companies are yet to resubmit their plans, a decision cannot be finalised at this stage.

When we assessed the business plans, Western Power Distribution (WPD) was the only electricity distribution company deemed suitable to be considered for fast-tracking, as its plans demonstrated clear value for consumers. This meant that in November we consulted on accepting its plans subject to our consultation on calculating equity market returns. Today's decision means that to stay in the fast-track process, WPD will need to make an equivalent reduction in its assumed cost of equity to 6.4% resulting in an overall cost of capital estimated at 3.9% for 2015-16.

WPD now has to decide whether to accept these adjustments. If it does not, it will revert to the slow-track process and resubmit plans in March, along with the other five companies.

-Ends-

Slowly undoing Ed's 'work'.

Looking at that chart skinny, I think we should see 1460 before the next halt.

Lord Gnome - I agree, and PDQ at this rate.