SSE has reported adjusted profit after tax of £450m, up from £111m at the same point in 2021, in its half-year results.
The report covering the six months ended 30 September also shows earnings per share of 41.8p, in line with pre-close guidance. Full year guidance is unchanged from May, with earnings of at least 120p expected.
The board has therefore recommended an interim dividend of 29p, payable on 9 March.
The Perth-headquartered electricity infrastructure company also claimed to have invested almost four times as much as it made in profits.
The interim results show that a record £1.7bn - up from £1bn year-on-year - was invested in boosting energy security and sustainability.
Adjusted operating profits stood at £716m at the end of September, up from £376m the previous year.
Strong performance of the thermal energy business - which includes flexible gas-fired power stations and gas storage facilities - was one of the main contributors to overall profits. SSE has approximately 40% of the UK’s onshore underground gas storage capacity.
Performance was also strong in the group’s regulated networks businesses, which continue to connect new generation assets to the grid.
Chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies commented: "We have delivered a good strategic and financial performance reflecting the strength of our business model.
"This has enabled us to invest far more than we earn – building and operating the clean homegrown energy infrastructure that will provide a sustainable solution to the current energy crisis."
By SSE's own estimates, if the system investment required to meet 2030 targets had been delivered by 2022, around £30bn would have been saved in British expenditure on gas this year.
"We therefore know cheaper, cleaner and more secure energy is coming, it just needs to be built and SSE is building at pace," stated Phillips-Davies. "With a supportive government policy environment, SSE alone could invest more than £24bn in Great Britain by the end of this decade."
SSE invested £1.1bn in the first half in building and operating offshore and onshore wind farms, upgrading transmission and distribution networks, as well as developing carbon capture and hydrogen storage technologies.
A further £640m was invested in strategic acquisitions where SSE sees opportunities to deliver more clean infrastructure. These included a deal to buy Triton Power with joint venture partners, adding to SSE’s pipeline of carbon capture and hydrogen storage tech.
Progress in the period included the first power at Seagreen, Scotland’s largest and the world’s deepest tethered wind farm, and completing the first foundations at Dogger Bank, which will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm when completed.
SSE has also continued to increase its workforce across the UK, consistent with its plan of adding at least 1,000 new roles per year to 2025.
In the past 12 months alone, the company has hired an additional 1,200 posts, including a record number of apprentices and graduates.
Across the UK, the group’s operations and investment programme supports more than 40,000 jobs.
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