Thousands of Scottish wind turbines are being switched off because Britain does not have enough electricity cables to carry their power south, a problem that is costing consumers billions of pounds.
Experts estimate that only around 60 per cent of Scotland’s renewable electricity currently reaches consumers, largely because there are not enough transmission links connecting Scotland with England.
Existing power lines are already operating close to their limits. As a result, many Scottish wind farms are forced to reduce or stop generation because the electricity they produce cannot be transported to the people and businesses that need it.
To make up for the shortfall, gas-fired power stations in England are brought online or asked to increase production. These generators receive so-called constraint payments as part of efforts to keep the national electricity system balanced.
The cost of managing the grid by curtailing wind power and increasing gas generation reached £1.9billion last year. Without major upgrades, that figure could climb to £8billion by 2030.
The expense currently works out at about £44 for the average household, but the National Audit Office has warned that this could rise to £104 by 2031 unless as much as £70billion is invested in the network by then.
Scotland is home to more than 4,700 operational wind turbines, including 4,228 onshore machines and 495 offshore turbines. Thousands more are expected to be developed through projects planned for the coming years.
However, the cables carrying electricity from Scotland towards England are already full. Operators cannot safely add more power to the existing network, increasing pressure for new transmission infrastructure to be built quickly.
Some Scottish wind turbines are being switched off because the electricity network lacks sufficient cable capacity (file image)
Dr Iain Staffell, an associate professor in sustainable energy at Imperial College London and a grid expert, told Our News Outlet: “Many people assume Britain is paying for the fact that wind farms were built far from where electricity demand is highest.
“But placing wind farms in Scotland was always logical because the region is far windier. The real cost comes from the delay in expanding the national grid so it can handle the additional generation.
“The biggest obstacle to moving electricity from Scotland into England is that constructing new transmission lines has proved extraordinarily difficult.”
Dr Staffell described the problem as part of a wider “planning paralysis” affecting major developments, from reservoirs and hospitals to the High Speed 2 rail project and the expansion of Heathrow Airport.
He said the National Energy System Operator, known as Neso, has been forced to design routes that take new cables out to sea, run them along the coastline and bring them back onshore in England and Wales. The approach is intended to avoid what he called “the curse of NIMBYs”.
Although offshore routes cost more than laying lines across land, as was done during the early development of the National Grid, Dr Staffell said they can avoid the “never-ending cycle of objections and appeals”.
He added: “Because the grid does not have enough capacity, it is frequently impossible to deliver all the wind power being generated to customers.
“Neso must pay wind farms to cut their output, then compensate other generators—usually gas-fired plants in England—to produce replacement electricity.
“Those costs are passed from Neso to energy suppliers and then on to households, meaning consumers effectively pay twice for the same electricity.”
Constraint payments, introduced in 2010, are made when wind generation exceeds local demand but the electricity cannot be transferred to other parts of Britain because the necessary network capacity is unavailable.
Wind farms are consequently ordered to reduce their output, even when power demand is high elsewhere, such as in southern England, because there are not enough transmission cables to move the electricity from Scotland.
Gas-fired plants near cities in England are then paid to provide the power instead while the wind energy is effectively wasted.
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Energy consultancy Apatura has previously described the issue as ‘the bottleneck that’s costing the UK £1bn a year’ – given capacity is already too low for existing wind farms.
It also believes around 60 per cent of Scotland’s renewable electricity output can reach consumers as it stands.
Upgrades are currently taking place to the Harker electrical substation near Carlisle, which moves electricity from Scottish wind farms to cities in England across the border about five miles away.
But these improvements alone will not solve the issue – given that better cabling infrastructure is required to increase the amount of power which can be transferred.
Dr Staffell said the Scotland-England boundary was one of various pinch points – given there are also boundaries inside Scotland which ‘often get congested’.
He explained: ‘That means upgrading Harker alone is not going to fix the problem, because electricity from northern Scotland can often hit a bottleneck before getting to that line.’
Dr Staffell cited research from the UK Energy Research Centre which ‘showed that these critical links are delivering much less than their rated capacity, in part because upgrading the network involves turning off circuits – so things have to get worse before they get better’.
He added that the National Audit Office has listed a series of ‘missed opportunities’ to approve upgrades earlier, with Harker being a ‘great example of this, with hoop after hoop after hoop to jump through to get things moving’.
Lawrence Slade, chief executive of the Energy Networks Association, which represents the UK’s energy networks, told Our News Outlet: ‘Network operators are working tirelessly to upgrade the grid, upgrades that are essential to save customers money, strengthen the country’s energy security, create thousands of jobs and cement the UK’s position as a clean energy leader—delivering reliable, affordable power for generations to come.
‘Though connections are accelerating, further reform of the planning system is required to allow network operators to go further and faster – particularly the full implementation of the current planning reform act across all regions.
‘Government figures show that the construction of offshore wind projects takes between two to three years, with the 2023 Winser Report finding that transmission infrastructure developments typically take between 12 to 14 years from identification of need to delivery, with planning processes responsible for the majority of this extra time.
‘Transmission operators, government, Ofgem and Neso are working collaboratively to reduce this time horizon to seven years.’
The Government has insisted that part of the cost of managing constraints is paying for gas generation closer to demand, which has risen after the US-Iran war.
Neso’s actions to balance the grid are claimed to have saved consumers at least £1.2billion over the last two years – with reforms intended to avoid up to £5billion in constraint costs in 2030.
Ministers are trying to cut constraint costs by reducing network delays – working to halve the time it takes to build new transmission infrastructure by reforming the planning system, supporting supply chains and minimising regulation.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman told Our News Outlet: ‘Britain’s outdated grid is holding the country back.
‘New wind farms, solar projects and businesses are stuck waiting years for connections, keeping us reliant on global fossil fuels and driving up costs for households.
‘That’s why we’re tackling decades of historic underinvestment by reforming the connections queue, launching Great British Grid to unlock billions of pounds of public and private investment, and ending the red tape that slows projects down by allowing developers to build their own connections.’
And a Neso spokesman said: ‘Keeping the lights on is not optional – we are legally required to keep electricity flowing securely across Great Britain.
‘The biggest opportunity to reduce balancing costs is the timely delivery of network infrastructure by transmission owners, which could halve those costs by the end of the decade.’
