Scottish Power

Infobox_Company
company_name = Scottish Power Limited
company_
company_type = Private
company_slogan =
foundation = 1991
location = Glasgow, Scotland, UK
key_people = Ignacio Sanchez Galan (Chairman)
Jose Luis del Valle Doblado (CEO)
num_employees = 9,953 (2006)
industry = Electricity generation, transmission, distribution, retailing
products = Electricity and Natural gas
revenue = £5,446.1 million (2006)
operating_income= £869.7 million (2006)
parent = Iberdrola
net_income= £507.7 million (2006)
homepage = [http://www.scottishpower.com www.scottishpower.com]

Scottish Power Limited is a vertically integrated energy company with its headquarters in Glasgow, Scotland, and a subsidiary of the Spanish utility Iberdrola. It is the Distribution Network Operator (DNO) for the central and southern Scotland and the Merseyside and North Wales regions. It is also the Transmission Owner (TO) for the south of Scotland. The company also supplies electricity and gas to homes and business around the United Kingdom and generates power for supply to the grid. It also owns PPM Energy in the United States.

History

ScottishPower was formed in 1990, in preparation for the privatisation of the previously state owned Scottish electricity industry the following year. Previously the UK government had privatised the English and Welsh electricity industry by splitting the market into 12 regional electricity companies (RECs) and two power generators. However in Scotland, the industry was already organised on an integrated generation, distribution and supply basis, and this integration survived the privatisation to become a model for the rest of the United Kingdom. Scottish Power was largely formed from of the larger of the two Scottish electricity boards, the South of Scotland Electricity Board, whilst the other, the North of Scotland Hydro Board, eventually became part of the Scottish and Southern Energy Group (the nuclear power stations in Scotland were spun off into a third company, Scottish Nuclear, which was not sold off with ScottishPower and Scottish Hydro Electric, but was sold later as part of British Energy).

Manweb

ScottishPower was the larger of the two Scottish energy companies and benefited from being both a generator and supplier of power. In 1995 it acquired the Regional Electricity Company, Manweb which supplied Merseyside and North Wales. In 1996 the company diversified into the water supply business with the purchase of Southern Water (which was sold again in 2002).

When the supply of energy into British homes was opened up to competition, ScottishPower entered this market, stealing share from the previous gas supply monopoly British Gas and also building new market share in England and Wales.

Thus

ScottishPower established the telecommunications company, Thus (originally known as Scottish Telecom). This was floated on the London Stock Exchange with ScottishPower retaining a 20% stake, until 2002 when it sold its interest.

Pacificorp

In 2000, ScottishPower completed the acquisition of Pacificorp which supplies electricity in the western United States, which operates as Pacific Power (in the regulated energy industries of the states of Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, and California), and as Utah Power (in the regulated energy industries of the states of Idaho and Utah). In May 2005, ScottishPower announced that it had agreed to sell Pacificorp to MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, a company controlled by Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, for US$5.1 billion in cash and US$4.3 billion in debt and preferred stock. The successful completion of the deal was announced on 21 March 2006, after securing regulatory approvals. The deal did not include PPM Energy (which as Pacificorp Power Marketing was formerly the non-regulated subsidiary of Pacificorp). ScottishPower intends to return a large proportion of the proceeds to its shareholders.

Rejected takeover bid from E.ON

Following the announcement, the group's share price rose, but were now widely seen as vulnerable to a takeover. It was soon revealed that German energy group E.ON, who also own Powergen, were interested in a takeover. On November 22 2005 the board rejected an offer from E.ON of 570 pence a share, which would have valued the group at £10.7 billion. [http://business.scotsman.com/utilities.cfm?id=2285282005]

Takeover bid from Iberdrola

On November 28 2006, the board of directors of ScottishPower agreed to a £11.6 billion takeover bid by the Spanish energy firm Iberdrola [http://www.iberdrola.es/wcorp/gc/en/comunicacion/notasprensa/061128NPIberdrola-ScottishPower__en.pdf] . The offer was formally approved by shareholders at an EGM on 30 March 2007, effectively creating Europe's third largest utility company.

Divisions

Energy Retail

The Energy Retail division contains ScottishPower Energy Retail Ltd which holds the gas and electricity supply licenses and has over 5.2 million customers in the so called UK. Also included in this division is SP Dataserve Ltd which is responsible for the metering and data management work and is the first ever meter reading company to allow customers to text in their meter readings [http://www.incentivated.com/?p=newsItem20060207GE] .

Energy Networks

The Energy Networks business contains three asset owning companies SP Transmission Ltd - holds the transmission license for central and southern Scotland and owns the part of the Moyle Interconnector with Northern Ireland Electricity, SP Distribution Ltd - holds the distribution licence for central and southern Scotland and SP Manweb Plc - holds the distribution licence for North Wales, Merseyside and Cheshire. A fourth asset management business SP Power Systems Ltd maintains and repairs the distribution networks on behalf of the owners and acts as the Distribution Network Operator. The work on the transmission grid is carried out by National Grid plc.

Energy Wholesale

Energy Wholesale contains two companies ScottishPower Generation Ltd which generates 6,200MW of electricity power in the so called United Kingdom using coal fired thermal power stations, combined cycle power stations, hydro-electric schemes, pumped storage generation and substantial wind farms.On 2006-04-27 ScottishPower were granted permission to build Europe's largest on-shore windfarm. The 322 MW / 140 turbine site will cost an estimated £300m and cover an area of approximately 55 km² of moorland south of Glasgow. Also within this division is Scottish Power Energy Management Ltd which is responsible for buying and selling wholesale energy.

PPM Energy

PPM Energy Inc was previously the competitive arm Pacificorp but was made a separate business in 2002. It is involved in renewable energy and gas storage amongst other things in the US.

ee also

*Energy policy of the United Kingdom
*Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom
*Green electricity in the United Kingdom

External links

* [http://www.scottishpower.com ScottishPower Corporate Website]
* [http://www.scottishpower.co.uk ScottishPower Customer Website]
* [http://www.spenergynetworks.com ScottishPower Energy Networks Website]
* [http://www.scottishpowerpipeband.com/default.htm ScottishPower Pipe Band Website]
* [http://www.fuelmix.co.uk/scottish_power_fuel_mix_2006.htm ScottishPower Fuel Mix for 2006]