SCOTTISH energy supplier SSE said it had performed “slightly” ahead of expectations in the first quarter of its financial year and that investment projects including offshore and onshore wind farms were continuing “at pace.”

The Perth-based company, which employs about 11,000 people, also said it had started a formal process to sell a 25% stake in its electricity transmission business.

In a trading update for the three months to 30 June 2022, SSE confirmed that shareholders would receive earnings for the full year of at least 120p per share.

This is almost 26% ahead of the last financial year, when shareholders earned 95.4p for every share.

SSE finance director Gregor Alexander said the company was continuing to make “excellent progress” on building renewable energy infrastructure to help the UK become carbon neutral and self-reliant in energy.

This ‘Net Zero Acceleration Programme’ involves SSE “investing at pace in the vital electricity infrastructure that will help build a more secure, affordable and sustainable energy system,” Mr Alexander said.

SSE’s plan involves investing a potential £25 billion across the UK and Ireland over the coming decade – including £15bn in Scotland – and delivering “more offshore wind than anyone on the planet.”

This financial year, SSE said in its trading statement it would be investing more than £2.5bn.

By 2031, the company hopes to increase the amount of renewable energy it produces by five times, which would be enough to power 20 million homes a year.

Projects already underway include Dogger Bank off the coast of Yorkshire, which SSE says will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Another project, Seagreen off the coast of Angus, will be “Scotland’s largest and the world’s deepest tethered offshore wind farm,” SSE says.

On the Shetland Islands, SSE is also building what it says will be “one of Europe’s most productive onshore wind farms,” called Viking.

In its trading update, SSE said progress across various capital expenditure projects like these “continues at pace.”

First power from Seagreen offshore wind farm was expected by the end of this month, SSE said. Construction on the Viking onshore wind farm and the three phases of Dogger Bank – which will each have up to 200 turbines – were also progressing well.

SSE said in its trading statement that electricity output from renewable sources across the UK and Ireland where it had an ownership interest was 93-gigawatt hours, or around 5%, ahead of plan in the quarter to 30 June 2022, mainly due to weather conditions.

Electricity output from SSE’s gas-fired power stations for the quarter was also “overall slightly ahead” of the same period last year, the company said. This reflected “market conditions and individual plant availability.”

SSE’s transmission business, SSEN Transmission, operates the network of sub-sea cables, overhead-lines, wooden poles and steel towers in the north of Scotland that carries electricity to communities across the UK.

The company began a process in May to sell a minority 25% minority stake in this business.

Progress was continuing with this and the formal process now underway, SSE said.

The plan is to agree a sale by the end of the calendar year, once this is approved by regulators.

Energy industry analyst Stuart Lamont, an investment manager at wealth management firm Brewin Dolphin, said: “SSE was expected to deliver a robust update against the backdrop of high power prices and the company appears to have delivered.”

Mr Alexander said SSE remained “confident in our financial outlook for strong earnings growth this year.”