Electricity customers spend billions compensating windfarm owners for turbine shutdowns

Electricity customers have spent £2bn compensating windfarm owners who have been ordered to switch off turbines.

The regular shutdowns are essential to avoid overloading the National Grid, which frequently cannot cope with the input from renewable energy projects.

STV News revealed in 2021 that electricity customers had been billed £1bn for the so-called “constraint payments” over a period of a decade since their introduction.

The compensation total has since doubled in just three-and-a-half years.

John Constable of the Renewable Energy Foundation, a charity that has long monitored the data, said: “Early action on constraints to contain them would have meant that the scale didn’t become as large as it has – and that public disenchantment wouldn’t have set in.

“The real problem now is that people don’t trust a word coming out of government or industry on these matters and, indeed, I’m afraid, they shouldn’t.

“The question is whether government has learnt the lesson that they cannot allow windfarm development to continue at this pace and also allow them to charge such prices for reducing output since the grid cannot accept and deliver the electricity.”

The £2bn milestone has been reached quickly due to the surge in new windfarms coming onstream across northern Scotland.

Since New Year, almost £16m has been paid in constraint payments. Last year’s record payout was £394m.

Lyndsey Ward of pressure group Communities B4 Power Companies said: “This is really concerning. If it’s gone that quickly in three years what’s going to happen next year and the year after?

“I think we’re probably looking at £1Bn a year if not more with the amount of windfarms that are coming forward now and it’s time to stop.”

The trade body Scottish Renewables said “a modern electricity network and investment in energy storage is the best way to balance supply and demand and minimise the cost of constraint payments.”

Responding to the criticism and public concern, the industry regulator Ofgem said it had robust rules to prevent generators from abusing the energy market and that it continually monitors the market and behaviour of windfarms and other generators.

The UK Government promised to work with the industry to “rewire Britain, upgrade outdated infrastructure and minimise constraint payments.”