Greencoat generation below budget on low wind resource

Greencoat UK Wind has announced results for the six months ended 30 June 2016. During the period, portfolio generation was 451.4GWh, 3 per cent. below budget. Net cash generated by the Group and wind farm SPVs was GBP30.9 million. Dividend cover was 1.9x. The Company’s aim is to provide investors with an attractive and sustainable dividend that increases in line with RPI inflation while preserving capital on a real basis. In line with its stated target of 6.34 pence per share for 2016, the Company has paid a dividend of 1.585 pence per share in respect of Q1 2016 and has declared a dividend of the same amount in respect of Q2 2016, giving a total of 3.17 pence per share for the period (compared to 3.13 pence for the first half of 2015). NAV per share was flat in the period: 102.9 pence (ex-dividend) at 31 December 2015 and at 30 June 2016, reflecting strong cash generation offset by lower power price forecasts.

Portfolio generation for the six months ended 30 June 2016 was 451.4GWh(1) , 3 per cent. below budget owing to low wind resource in Q2 (Q1 generation above budget). Overall portfolio availability was high. Notable major outages across the portfolio were a 3.5 day scheduled outage of the Clyde North substation for upgrade works in preparation for the connection of Clyde Extension and a turbine transformer failure at Yelvertoft, which led to the turbine being offline for six weeks. Yaw gear failures at Maerdy remain an ongoing Siemens issue.

Wind energy true-ups for Cotton Farm, Earl’s Hall Farm and Kildrummy were agreed in the period. Cotton Farm and Earl’s Hall farm resulted in no net payment and Kildrummy resulted in a payment of GBP1.2 million from BayWa to the Group. The Middlemoor wind energy true-up process is underway. The true-up mechanism is designed to mitigate the risk associated with investing in a wind farm before sufficient operational data are available.

UKW : Greencoat generation below budget on low wind resource