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Friday, June 5, 2020

UK Wind Farms Paid £.9.3m To Switch Off Their Turbines For One Day

‘Constraint payments’ 
have been declared a 
“national embarrassment”
 and a power management 
“disgrace”.

Wind farms in Britain 
were paid a record £.9.3m 
to switch off their turbines 
on Friday, May 22.

More than 80 plants 
across England and Scotland 
are handed ‘constraint payments’, 
when supply outstrips demand, 
by the National Grid.

Consumers will pay the bill 
of £6.9m to 66 Scottish plants 
and £1.9m to 14 offshore 
plants in England.

The previous single day 
record payout to wind farm 
operators was £4.8m 
on Oct 8, 2018, when t
it was too wondy.

Windy and sunny weather 
combined with the lack 
of demand due to the 
COVID-19 lockdown 
is the likely cause.


Dr John Constable, director of 
Renewable Energy Foundation, 
a UK charity that monitors 
energy use, said: 
Overdeployment of renewables in the UK, particularly uncontrollable wind and solar, has resulted in a very fragile electricity system, which is inflexible and unable to deal with accidents and unexpected circumstances at a reasonable cost to consumers.

“Grid balancing expenditure so far this year is already horrific and by the end of the summer it will be terrifying.

“This is a national embarrassment, and a disgrace to the management of the electricity sector who have complacently allowed this crisis to develop over the last decade.”

The charity previously 
revealed that operators 
of 86 wind farms in Britain 
were handed a record of 
more than £136m 
in constraint payments 
last year.