No one ever lost sleep investing in National Grid. This is one of the most reliable and highest dividend payers in the FTSE 100. Since February it has known exactly what its regulatory regime will look like until 2021, or, to put it another way, what targets it must exceed to outperform.
This and the switch to safer, income stocks has benefited the price, which is up 17 per cent since the start of the year.
National Grid is confident, or as confident as anyone can be, that it has bolted enough excess capacity on to the system to prevent the lights going out. The existing reserve, which represents 4 per cent more generating capacity than should be needed, would be sufficient in 19