British utility SSE has today cut its five-year investment plans by £3 billion, citing a changing macroeconomic environment across the energy sector.
“The group’s investment plans have not been immune to the changing macroeconomic environment and wider delays to the planning processes which have been seen over the last 12 months,” SSE said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump’s trade policies have sparked concerns about the health of the global economy. Fears of trade disruptions, rising costs, increasing volatility, and dampening demand have become an overhang to companies across sectors.
In the energy sector, costs related to solar, wind and grid infrastructure have shot up, resulting in project cancellations or delays.
SSE, which has been pushing towards green energy goals, cut its investment plan to around £17.5 billion, with the renewables division seeing the biggest hit with a £1.5 billion reduction.
The energy group also reported an adjusted pre-tax profit of almost £2.14 billion in the year to the end of March, down 2.7% on the figure for last year.
The owner of SSE Airtricity did not break down its profits by country, but did say it paid £75m in tax in Ireland – up more than 10% year on year.
The company supplies over 460,000 electricity customers and almost 310,000 gas customers across the island of Ireland, while it employs 5,190 people here.
