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Energy Prices are a problem, but a retail price freeze risks blackouts

These are today's figures for SSE.
2013 09 25 sse
Note the overall profit of 62.31p per share in a turnover of 2935.07 per share. This is a profit of just over 2% of turnover.
The problem is the underlying price of energy. That, however, is set by the global markets and we are energy importers. If you have a retail price freeze and an increase in the underlying price of energy then there is only a 2% leeway of profit before the company goes into losses. The first thing that would stop is the investment in new plant. Without new plant we face the threat of blackouts.
Companies like BG (British Gas) make a higher proportion of profit because they are benefiting from producing fossil fuels and are not mainly a retail company.

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