Wind farms paid £14m by National Grid for switching off turbines

Published on Thursday 26 January 2012 00:54

SCOTTISH wind farm operators received more than £14 million in the past two years in return for switching off their turbines, it has been revealed.

Since 2010, a system of “constraint payments” has been operated by the National Grid to compensate windfarms if they are taken off the grid when it cannot cope with high supply.

A breakdown of the payments made to wind farms has been published by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), a charity that has been sceptical of wind power. It believes the data should be made public.

All the 15 wind farm sites paid constraint payments are in Scotland. They received a total of £14,249,194 in compensation in the past two years.

The 40-turbine Farr Wind Farm, near Inverness, which is operated by nPower renewables, received the highest payment, of more than £2.3m.

The lowest payment went to ScottishPower Renewables’ 60-turbine Arecleoch Wind Farm in South Ayrshire, which received £24,584.

The REF claimed the figures showed that the price of the constraint payments was often many times more than the loss in subsidy payments for wind farms, which are withdrawn for the period when they are taken off the grid, “suggesting that the market is not functioning in the consumer interest”.

Dr John Constable, director of REF, said: “The introduction of opaque trading arrangements to manage wind power is a very unwelcome step in the wrong direction and must be reversed without delay.

“It is time for the regulator, Ofgem, to step in to protect the consumer interest by ensuring UK electricity markets become more transparent, not less.”

The overloading problem in Scotland is a result of a lack of capacity in the grid to carry the electricity generated by growing numbers of renewable energy schemes.

Responding to REF’s figures, Catherine Birkbeck, grid and markets policy manager at Scottish Renewables, highlighted that all energy producers received constraint payments, not just wind farms.

“All electricity generators, including coal and gas power stations, are paid not to generate at times of lower than expected demand or when there is congestion on the grid,” she said.

“The payments made to renewables are tiny compared to what is paid to fossil-fuelled electricity generation.

“Scottish Renewables is working closely with National Grid to address how the industry can work with the regulator to ensure constraint payments are kept to a minimum.” She also questioned REF’s agenda, pointing out that it is a “well- established anti-wind farm group”.

Overall constraint payments to all types of generators, including fossil fuel firms, totalled £708m for the financial year 2010-11, and consumer groups recently called for a cap to be put on the payouts to energy firms.

A spokesman for energy regulator Ofgem said: “We are reviewing the rules around generator behaviour when transmission constraints are active.”

A National Grid spokesman said that it used various trading agreements and tools to control costs. He added: “They help keep prices, to manage constraints and balance the electricity transmission system, as low as possible.”

Related Articles

• Flooding costs to rise

  THE costs to the UK of flooding could rise to billions of pounds a year in the coming decades, according to the first national assessment of the risks of climate change.

  1 Comments

• Power giants turn up the heat

  IT may lack the cutting-edge appeal of computer science, or the glamour associated with high-flying financing, but Scotland’s utility sector plays a crucial role in the nation’s economic wellbeing.

  0 Comments

• Market reform to slash business electricity bills

  SCOTTISH businesses are to see electricity bills slashed as part of an imminent shake-up of the UK energy market - cuts that will come at the expense of firms in the south-east of England.

  0 Comments

• Still a strong headwind for those predicting a renewable-energy future

  RENEWABLE energy, it was reported this week, is already close to generating about 18 per cent of Scotland's electricity. That means Scotland will soon hit the 18 per cent renewable target set for 2010 by the Scottish Executive. It was reported that by 2010, Scotland could in fact be generating 33 per cent of its electricity from renewables. Exciting stuff.

  0 Comments

• Power struggle: demand for oil is rising far quicker than production

  With oil prices hitting a new high, the National Grid faltering and the Treasury in retreat on fuel tax, the politics of energy touches us all. Richard Bath provides the essential guide to the issue of the moment

  0 Comments

• 'Green' Scotland relying on French nuclear power

  SCOTLAND'S wind farms are unable to cope with the freezing weather conditions – grinding to a halt at a time when electricity demand is at a peak, forcing the country to rely on power generated by French nuclear plants.

  0 Comments

Comments

There are 19 comments to this article

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 2

• 1
• 2
• Next >
• Show all

19

nabodican

Friday, January 27, 2012 at 10:41 AM

#9 Broon Bairn, The reason they get paid to switch them off is that the wind industry wangled a deal with our politicians whereby there product is guaranteed to be purchased whether needed or not. Conventional power generators get penalised if they cannot bring power on to the system when asked.

• Report Unsuitable

18

Black Grouse

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 05:23 PM

samcoldstream. Get your facts right - It will be the electricity consumer who pays for "a multi-billion upgrade of the grid in Scotland".

• Report Unsuitable

17

Kobi

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 02:24 PM

#11 "which snp minister will be first to jump ship and take a post with a renewable company?" Guess which mouthy gobsh*te running about the world preaching the benefits of his policy of 6 wind turbines for every free Scot, is being lined up for a lucrative post with one of Scotland's great renewable gravy-train troughers?

• Report Unsuitable

16

Big Bert

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 02:02 PM

What a terrible waste of money. We all pay this subsidy on our domestic fuel bills and those of British industry. Wind farms are being sited in some very unsuitable locations, too close to homes, in areas of important biodversity etc. They are ruining some of our finest landscape. Please GOOGLE REDUCE ELECTRICTY BILLS 22704 TO REDUCE THE SUBSIDY FOR WIND FARMS. Please vote and Tweet it round. Force a debate to end this scam..

• Report Unsuitable

15

douglas-home rule

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 01:44 PM

11--Buford, old boy, that would be the Britnat, Labours Brian Wilson..

• Report Unsuitable

14

TommyTommy

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 01:42 PM

[e-mail] are not using as much electricity because the economy is shrinking and production in general is being reduced .Households are not using as much electricity because their incomes in general are falling and they are using less energy.It is easier for the grid to stop supply from wind mills than from say a nuclear plant.This is a market driven commodity with an almost bottomless supply available from known technology.The issue of subsidising producers only arises in a market economy.If -as i said before-the needs of people determined the supply of electricity this article and the issues surrounding people enriching themselves from subsidies wouldnt arise.

• Report Unsuitable

13

tested

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 12:43 PM

Already happened up here with one of our local councillors who had a 100% record for approving windfarm applications now working for a windmill development company. Seriously with the amount of our money being thrown at these white elephants somebody has to take a long hard look at some of our councillors and planners. There's a couple up here who are more zealous than any developer and they dont let the truth get in the way of a good bit of spin. #9 Broon Bairn First your post highlights one of the main failings of wind in that it can be available when not needed and missing when needed. Our consumption varies dramatically throughout the day and it doesn't take a lot of extra capacity to overload the grid at times of low consumption and thats what the windmills gives us not a lot and often at the wrong times.

• Report Unsuitable

12

Broon Bairn

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 12:34 PM

10. So is the UK government, which also advocates a "green" agenda. So what?

• Report Unsuitable

11

Buford Van Stomm

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 12:08 PM

which snp minister will be first to jump ship and take a post with a renewable company?

• Report Unsuitable

10

Velv

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 11:52 AM

Ironic that the Scottish Government which is pushing a green Scotland with green energy is actually dependent on oil revenue and tax for most of its income

• Report Unsuitable

9

Broon Bairn

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 11:51 AM

If wind-farms are such an irrelevance, then why is the National Grid paying them to stop producing electricity?

• Report Unsuitable

8

TommyTommy

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 11:47 AM

Cameron talks about compassionate Capitalism but production for profit is an intrinsic part of Capitalism no matter what morality you try to attach to it.Here we have companies paid NOT to produce electricity while the majority of households are turning off the supply because they cant afford to buy it.There isn't an inability to produce it but market demand dictates what is produced.People need electricity and they would use more of it they could afford it.Profit comes before need even when the new technology that is supposed to offer a brighter future is in full swing.

• Report Unsuitable

7

CMac11

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 11:37 AM

So constraint payments of around 2% of the total went to wind energy.... pretty reasonable considering its contribution to generation can be up to 6x this and on average about 3x this. Don't get me wrong though, I'm all for a transparent system to stop any unreasonable charges, might rein in some of the other £694million as well eh! Or is it just the nasty wind turbine generators exploiting the system and not the angelic incumbents??

• Report Unsuitable

6

samcoldstream

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 09:02 AM

This may explain why the operators are prepared to pay for a multi-billion upgrade of the grid in Scotland.

• Report Unsuitable

5

unimpressedone

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 08:58 AM

And this is a government that preaches failure should not be rewarded! We have vastly more expensive means of generating power, desecrated landscapes and, to add insult to injury, the owners get paid to do nothing. Waken up people, this is a glimpse of Salmond's loony green future that will bankrupt the nation.

• Report Unsuitable

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 2

• 1
• 2
• Next >
• Show all

Logged in as:

Comment here. Start typing your comment here:

Post comment

Please adhere to our Community guidelines

Your view

Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.