Greencoat UK Wind earnings in line with expectations

Greencoat UK Wind has published results for the year ended 31 December 2014. Over 2014 it generated a return on net assets of 8.7% – their net asset value rose by 2.5% and they paid dividends totalling 6.16p, these were covered 1.6x by earnings. The target for the dividend for 2015 is 6.26p – an uplift of 1.6% in-line with RPI. The return to shareholders was 13.7%

They increased the number of wind farms in their portfolio to 16 by the end of the year. These were worth £591.2m and are capable of generating 271.5MW.

Total electricity generated over the year was 564.6GWh – this was 3% below budget as “wind resource” fell below average in the second half of the year but this sort of variance is well within their expected range. The standard deviation of energy yield over a 12 month period is 10 per cent. (standard deviation of wind speed 6 per cent.).

Major unscheduled outages included the failure of a blade at Little Cheyne Court (as a result of a lightning strike) and two further onshore cable joint failures at Rhyl Flats (all three cable joints have now been upgraded with a permanent rectification). Each is an insured event. Power prices were weaker than forecast in 2014 owing to lower than forecast gas prices. Net cash generated during the year was £32.4m, £20.8m was paid in dividends and the excess was reinvested.

UKW : Greencoat UK Wind earnings in line with expectations