SSE 'fed up" with criticism as profits leap 38pc to 'modest" £400m The facts are that our half-year profits this year are still below where they were in 2009. Last year our profits were abnormally low because we held retail prices down for longer than we probably in hindsight should have done. We got no credit for that. The leap in profits was driven by SSE's energy supply arm returning to operating profit, of £75.7m, compared with a £101.4m loss a year ago when weather was unusually warm. SSE's profit margin on energy supply was 1.5pc. "We made a stonking great big loss last year in our retail business and we made a very modest profit this year," Mr Marchant said. Defending the tariff increase, he said: "The reality is we face upward pressure on cost and that's what's driving prices, not profits." SSE's chairman Lord Smith of Kelvin also came out fighting, insisting profits allowed it to "employ people, pay tax, provide services that customers need, make investments that keep the lights on and create jobs" while its dividend provided "an income return that shareholders like pension funds need." The company raised its interim dividend by 5pc to 25.2p a share. SSE argued that it should be judged by its full-year results because half-year results were much more affected by volatile trading conditions. SSE also reiterated that it had not been involved in any alleged price-rigging of wholesale energy markets, insisting it was "still entirely confident its wholesale energy market activity is fair and legitimate." All of the 'Big Six' energy suppliers have denied price-fixing. Mr Marchant added he also thought it "unlikely" price-rigging was occurring in the market as a whole. SSE's experts had examined evidence revealed to date and could see "nothing special" happening on days when alleged malpractice took place and were "not quite sure what the storm is about," he said. However, he called for an investigation to be conducted "thoroughly but quickly," adding that if price-rigging was occurring "we want to know like everybody else because we buy gas and we want to know whether we have been affected our our customers have been affected." While SSE's results showed that its networks business of pylons and cables did well, with a 19.3pc increase in operating profits, those for its generation business fell 44.5pc to £123.3m, as output from gas-fired power stations plummeted 71pc. SSE warned that policy uncertainty over a proposed "capacity mechanism" to incentivise construction of gas-fired power stations was delaying its ability to make a decision on investing in a proposed 470MW plant at Abernedd in South Wales. Find the cheapest energy prices near you and switch online in minutes