WINDFARM operators are sharing payouts of nearly £125,000 a day – for turning off their turbines.
New details from the National Grid show “constraint fees” given to mast owners have added £26.6million to energy bills since April alone.
Some windfarm operators can earn up to £700 an hour for shutting when it gets too windy and the nation’s electricity grid gets overloaded.
Last night, campaigners battling to stop the march of the turbines – which have been erected in huge numbers across the Highlands – said the payments were “shocking” and called for a moratorium on new developments.
Demand for electricity is much higher at some times of day than others – normally peaking between 5pm and 7pm during the week as people arrive home from work and make dinner while putting the washing on. The rest of the time, demand is much lower.
But as electricity cannot be stored in large quantities, National Grid has to request generators to step up or decrease the amount they produce to balance supply and demand.
It gives generators compensation – known as “constraint payments” – when they have to reduce their output.
Between April and October this year, those payments topped £26.6million.
That amounts to £124,590 a day. The average just three years ago was £547 a day.
Linda Holt – who leads Scotland Against Spin Group – said the payments were the most damaging evidence of the money “thrown at green energy”. “These are the most shocking figures to date and they show how we are picking up the bill for these scandalous payments,” she said. “The system needs reformed – there should be no more turbines built until we get this system sorted out.
“For every turbine we have, there is another one with consent ready to be built. And then there is the same again in the planning system.” She said: “The government is worried about benefits scroungers, but the real scroungers are the windfarm operators paid hundreds of thousands of pounds for not working.”
Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, defended the payments. He said: “Almost every kind of electricity generator, including coal and gas, are constrained off the grid as National Grid cannot meet its contractual commitment to take power from that generator.”
A National Grid spokeswoman said the payments were essential for a balanced electricity system.
“National Grid balances the country’s demand and supply of electricity minute by minute, and it also transports electricity from where it is generated to where it is needed,” she said. “It can ask generators to come on or off the grid to manage constraints and keep the system balanced.
“National Grid has a number of tools at its disposal to do that. The number and relative value of constraint payments made to windfarms is small compared to overall constraint payments made to generators of all types.”
Rising energy bills have been one of the hottest political potatoes of 2013. And green levies – the extra money we pay for renewable energy – have come in for particular criticism.
Today’s revelation about constraint payments will further fuel the flames. But the UK Government may have sounded the death knell for many small windfarms last week by cutting subsidies and diverting them to offshore projects. The spread of community-led onshore turbine developments is expected to slow, with some projects scrapped, after the Westminster government published revised support rates for renewables schemes.
Onshore wind had been due to be given a subsidised price of £100 for every “megawatt hour” unit of power produced until March 2017, when it would fall to £95. It will now receive £5 less, but the price for offshore energy will rise by £5.
And under-pressure energy giants have started announcing plans to pass on savings to customers after the UK Government unveiled a package of measures to cut bills.
Comment, Page 32