National Grid takes $402 million hit on paused New York wind project

By Shashwat Awasthi

(Reuters) -National Grid booked a multi-million impairment charge on a paused U.S. wind project, but said on Thursday it was on track to invest 60 billion pounds ($79.74 billion) in energy networks through March 2029 and its results beat estimates.

Its shares rose 2% to 1,038 pence by 0725 GMT, outperforming the wider market, which traded 0.5% lower.

The renewable energy sector has been shaken by U.S. President Donald Trump's hostility to wind power.

On the first day of his second term in office in January, he ordered a suspension of offshore wind leasing in a reversal of his predecessor Joe Biden's support for renewable energy to help decarbonise generation.

National Grid, together with Germany's RWE, as a result paused development of a New York offshore wind project.

RWE owns 73% of the project, with the rest owned by National Grid, which on Thursday said it had booked a 303 million pounds ($402.7 million) impairment charge.

"We've taken the view from an accounting perspective that there's no immediate prospect of that project developing," CEO John Pettigrew said in an interview with Reuters. "Long term, we do think it's an opportunity, but not in the immediate short term."

Pettigrew said the project was a small part of National Grid's business, which mainly involves running Britain's energy systems, and operating electricity and gas businesses in New York and Massachusetts.

Earnings growth in UK electricity transmission and higher rates in the company's New York businesses helped it to post adjusted operating profit of 5.36 billion pounds for the year ended March 31, compared with a company-compiled analysts' estimate of 5.29 billion pounds.

($1 = 0.7524 pounds)

(Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Barbara Lewis)