'Scandalous waste of money' - Households to feel increased weight of £500m windfarm bill for creaking grid

Household bills are projected to increase because the UK Government’s obligation to cover for windfarms to stop overloading an already at-capacity grid has reached the highest level on record.

Some £500 million has been paid to developers so far this year alone to pause wind generation or turn on gas plants in their place because of a creaking grid network.

The figure is roughly a £150m increase on the figure from the same time period last year.

One estimate, by think tank Carbon Tracker, showed curtailment costs - where windfarm developers are paid to switch off turbines because the grid network is too congested to accept their power - were already costing the average household about £40 per year in 2023. At the time, researchers said this was set to triple by 2026 in the context of increasing renewable energy projects and delayed upgrades to the grid.

READ MORE: ‘The new Scottish Clearances': Rural communities 'abandoned' in industrial-scale changes under net zero push

Octopus Energy, the nation’s leading power supplier, estimates that by 2030, these payments could be adding £6bn a year to consumer bills – roughly equating to £200 a household.

Energy experts have said Scottish communities having to host landscape-scale developments on their doorstep because of the renewable energy rush are, per unit of power, paying proportionally more than those who do not live near where the power is being generated.

A derelict property in the middle of ‘windfarm alley’ in Dumfries and Galloway | Katharine Hay

Campaigners have regularly described this as an injustice and called for better compensation measures, such as cheaper energy prices, or to pause Net Zero-related developments in rural areas altogether until policy is improved.

Mark Hodgson, a member of Scotland Against Spin (SAS), a campaign group opposing wind energy policy, said: “Scottish consumers are paying through the nose for electricity because of the crazed rush to substantially ‘decarbonise’ the grid by 2030, and rural communities are being damaged by renewables developments which are adding to their electricity bills.

“This is to add insult to injury and is no way to run a 21st century economy’s energy needs.”

READ MORE: 'We are deeply concerned' - Calls to freeze Net Zero projects with eyes on Skye for windfarm inquiry

The curtailment cost analysis, carried out by energy specialist website Wasted Wind, said turbines having to be switched off cost the grid £6m alone on Tuesday this week. Meanwhile, another £10m was paid to gas-fired plants to provide replacement power elsewhere in the system.

These figures, plus 2025’s overall UK bill of about £518,000,000 in curtailment payments to date, were confirmed by the nationalised National Energy System Operator (NESO), which manages the grid for the UK.

NESO said in its own report from 2023/24, balancing costs from curtailment equated to about 4 per cent of consumer bills which amounted to roughly £4 a month. While it did not have figures for the impact on household bills for this year, another report from the organisation showed curtailment costs could potentially reach £6 billion by 2030 which would be passed on to consumers and felt in their electricity bills.

One of Scotland’s biggest onshore windfarms, Viking, on mainland Shetland, is one development that has had to be switched off at times due to overcapacity on the gird.

Viking windfarm has had to turn off its turbines due to grid capacity issues | (Picture: SSE/PA Wire)

Reports show in August last year alone, the developer, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), was paid more than £2m in constraint payments because of the grid reaching over capacity.

Residents on the ground have said the turbines are currently standing still despite windy conditions.

Frank Hay, of Sustainable Shetland, a campaign group set up to promote social, environmental and economic sustainability on the islands, said: “As we look at the Viking turbines standing idle in what should be optimal conditions for wind energy the nonsense of constructing windfarms without ensuring that the energy produced can be utilised is painfully obvious.

“It has led to a scandalous waste of money for constraint payments.”

SSEN has previously said ultimately the solution is to invest in more electricity grid infrastructure so that the energy can be transported.

The company is investing £20bn by 2030 in transmission infrastructure and has advocated to reform planning and consents to speed up investment and upgrades.

Energy experts have said the ball was dropped in terms of keeping up the pace of upgrading electricity grid infrastructure over the last few decades alongside what has been a significant buildout of renewable energy developments.

This underinvestment, they said, has led to capacity constraints at the costs seen today.

Researchers in energy policy have said while curtailment costs are being felt in households, renewable energy developments can bring positive changes to the economies of rural communities by bringing in jobs.

These include increased employment in construction and jobs created for servicing developments, including windfarms.

The industrialisation of some areas is also favoured by some parties for providing jobs in areas where people have otherwise had to travel to the Central Belt for work.

Campaigners in Scotland, however, have pushed back, arguing the industrial developments will threaten the environment and one of its main industries: tourism.

Campaigners living in rural Scotland, including the Highlands, have repeatedly raised concern over the renewable energy rush and its impact on the landscape and subsequently Scotland’s tourism industry | Heritage Images/Getty Images

Activists argue the Net Zero push will damage the very reasons the country is on the international stage - that being for its landscape.

A letter, signed by more than 40 different campaign groups across Scotland from Skye to Dumfries and Galloway has been written to First Minister John Swinney calling for a freeze on further windfarm developments and related projects over what some campaigners have previously described as “a wild west approach” in the race to reach Net Zero goals.

In response to the increasing curtailment costs, a UK government spokesperson said: “The National Energy System Operator’s independent report shows we can achieve clean power by 2030 with cheaper electricity, even factoring in constraint payments, and a more secure energy system for Britain.

“Through our Clean Power Action Plan, we will work with industry to rewire Britain, upgrade our outdated infrastructure to get renewable electricity on the grid, and minimise constraint payments."

Energy statistics released by the Scottish Government in March this year showed that by the end of December last year, there were 904 projects with an estimated capacity of 65.4 GW in the planning pipeline in Scotland. Of these, 640 were renewable electricity generation projects with an estimated capacity of 37.5 GW and 264 were electricity storage projects with an estimated capacity of 27.9 GW.

The report said Scotland continues to generate more electricity than it needs.

In 2024, there was 19.7TWh of net electricity exports to other UK nations.