{"id":354593,"date":"2024-12-16T08:54:34","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T07:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=354593"},"modified":"2024-12-16T08:54:36","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T07:54:36","slug":"system-balancing-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=354593","title":{"rendered":"System Balancing Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Rose had a good article on wind constraint payments the other day on UnHerd. You can read it here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He began with the example of the Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm, commissioned two years ago. It lies just off the Scottish coast at Montrose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seagreen has capacity of 1.1 GW, but as he notes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving become fully operational in late 2022, Seagreen generated an impressive quantity of power in the first 10 months of this year, which earned its operators some \u00a370 million. But they were paid almost as much to switch its turbines off \u2013 at least \u00a357 million\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem, he says, is that there is simply not enough transmission capacity to take all of the wind power from Seagreen and all of the other Scottish wind farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from the Renewable Energy Foundation<\/a> confirms that in the last 12 months, Seagreen supplied 1412 GWh to the grid, but was paid \u00a362 million to not send 3020 GWh, which otherwise would have been generated and transmitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rose goes on to write about how the amounts paid out to Seagreen and others now will be dwarfed in a few years time, if Miliband\u2019s plan to massively expand wind power goes ahead. The current plan to waste \u00a34 billion building two new interconnectors from Scotland to England will make little difference in overall terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2030, connection between Scotland and England will be a minor issue anyway. The real problem will be the regular large surpluses of wind power across the whole of the grid, when it is simply too windy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their report earlier this year, the National Grid projected that balancing costs in total could rise to \u00a35 billion in the 2030s. This was based on the last government\u2019s 2035 deadline for 100% clean power, so Miliband\u2019s plans will likely accelerate these cost increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
https:\/\/www.neso.energy\/document\/318666\/download<\/a>\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sorry for the poor image \u2013 the zoomed image below explains that the black line represents the \u201cLeading the Way\u201d scenario, and the yellow the \u201cConsumer Transformation\u201d one, two of the four scenarios used in their Future Energy Scenarios this year. As I commented at the time, the only realistic one is the second, Consumer Transformation, which suggests balancing costs rising to around \u00a35 billion in the 2030s:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This is double the current cost of balancing, which itself has risen from just over a billion five years ago. Constraint payments, (the yellow block), make up about two thirds of the total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As the National Grid admit, forecasting balancing costs post-2030 is difficult, because it depends on how the whole system is structured. For instance, a fleet of electrolysers would mop up some surplus power, as would mammoth increases in storage. Maybe excess power could be exported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their projections already assume massive network reinforcement after 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, we will all have to pay one way or another, whether through balancing costs, for network upgrades, storage and whatever else they think of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Rose had a good article on wind constraint payments the other day on UnHerd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":354600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691824794,691821693,691831994,691818247,691829702,691831993],"class_list":{"0":"post-354593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-100-clean-power","9":"tag-ed-miliband","10":"tag-future-energy-scenarios","11":"tag-national-grid","12":"tag-renewable-energy-foundation","13":"tag-seagreen-offshore-wind-farm","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0182bf52e27f8f25d283b019fd458f84e.jpeg?fit=1242%2C776&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1uff","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":420666,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=420666","url_meta":{"origin":354593,"position":0},"title":"Scotland\u2019s biggest offshore wind farm wasting three quarters of energy","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/01\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Scotland's largest operational offshore wind farm, the Seagreen project (1.075 GW capacity, 114 turbines, operated by SSE Renewables and TotalEnergies), reportedly wasted around 77% of its generated electricity in 2025 due to grid constraints. This means operators were paid to curtail (switch off) turbines when the UK grid- particularly transmission\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Energy\"","block_context":{"text":"Energy","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=energy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQNjPMYQDRDCTYGHJUDP63CXSaueXNsqig9GY_vBzOMtRcVCt7PSwfGZnYC0sr0owpFiEbNq07MQoWiD3h5IgEvM5wdDQH6t8w2mfPsbKk9Wqs7DTSCToymGLVKme_P2-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C658&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQNjPMYQDRDCTYGHJUDP63CXSaueXNsqig9GY_vBzOMtRcVCt7PSwfGZnYC0sr0owpFiEbNq07MQoWiD3h5IgEvM5wdDQH6t8w2mfPsbKk9Wqs7DTSCToymGLVKme_P2-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C658&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQNjPMYQDRDCTYGHJUDP63CXSaueXNsqig9GY_vBzOMtRcVCt7PSwfGZnYC0sr0owpFiEbNq07MQoWiD3h5IgEvM5wdDQH6t8w2mfPsbKk9Wqs7DTSCToymGLVKme_P2-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C658&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQNjPMYQDRDCTYGHJUDP63CXSaueXNsqig9GY_vBzOMtRcVCt7PSwfGZnYC0sr0owpFiEbNq07MQoWiD3h5IgEvM5wdDQH6t8w2mfPsbKk9Wqs7DTSCToymGLVKme_P2-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C658&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQNjPMYQDRDCTYGHJUDP63CXSaueXNsqig9GY_vBzOMtRcVCt7PSwfGZnYC0sr0owpFiEbNq07MQoWiD3h5IgEvM5wdDQH6t8w2mfPsbKk9Wqs7DTSCToymGLVKme_P2-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C658&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":360491,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=360491","url_meta":{"origin":354593,"position":1},"title":"The UK pays wind turbines for failure \u2014 so the market wants to install more failures","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/01\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Ponder for a moment how intrinsically unsuitable, maladapted, and worthless wind turbines are to a grid. Their failure is so comprehensive, multifaceted and inevitable, an entirely new and bizarre market was invented to reward their failures. Even when they generate electricity, if the time is wrong, the demand is low,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Net Zero Watch\"","block_context":{"text":"Net Zero Watch","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=net-zero-watch"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/zScreenshot-2023-11-03-111148-1024x611-1.webp?fit=1024%2C611&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/zScreenshot-2023-11-03-111148-1024x611-1.webp?fit=1024%2C611&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/zScreenshot-2023-11-03-111148-1024x611-1.webp?fit=1024%2C611&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/zScreenshot-2023-11-03-111148-1024x611-1.webp?fit=1024%2C611&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":367328,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=367328","url_meta":{"origin":354593,"position":2},"title":"Major wind farm was paid \u00a365m to cut power output by three quarters","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"23\/02\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"One of Britain\u2019s biggest wind farms was handed \u00a365m to slash its output by nearly three quarters last year, amid warnings that the country\u2019s \u201cstaggeringly inefficient\u201d power grid is pushing up household bills. The Seagreen offshore wind farm in the\u00a0North Sea\u00a0\u2013 the largest of its kind in Scotland \u2013 had\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0nicholas-doherty-pONBhDyOFoM-unsplash-scaled-e1661335268967.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0nicholas-doherty-pONBhDyOFoM-unsplash-scaled-e1661335268967.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0nicholas-doherty-pONBhDyOFoM-unsplash-scaled-e1661335268967.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0nicholas-doherty-pONBhDyOFoM-unsplash-scaled-e1661335268967.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0nicholas-doherty-pONBhDyOFoM-unsplash-scaled-e1661335268967.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":368521,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=368521","url_meta":{"origin":354593,"position":3},"title":"Britain Paying \u00a3180,000 an Hour to Switch Off Wind Farms","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/03\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Britain is paying almost \u00a3180,000 an hour to switch off wind farms because there is\u00a0nowhere for the excess power to go.","rel":"","context":"In \"energy bills\"","block_context":{"text":"energy bills","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=energy-bills"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Screenshot-2025-02-11-000504.jpeg?fit=1200%2C624&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Screenshot-2025-02-11-000504.jpeg?fit=1200%2C624&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Screenshot-2025-02-11-000504.jpeg?fit=1200%2C624&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Screenshot-2025-02-11-000504.jpeg?fit=1200%2C624&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Screenshot-2025-02-11-000504.jpeg?fit=1200%2C624&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":375943,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=375943","url_meta":{"origin":354593,"position":4},"title":"Shetland\u2019s Viking Windfarm\u00a0Scandal","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"20\/04\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Ofgem is investigating the compliance of Moray Offshore Windfarm (East) Ltd (the owner and operator of Moray East Offshore Windfarm) with the requirements of condition 20A of the Electricity Generation Standard Licence Conditions (known as the Transmission Constraint Licence Condition, or \u201cTCLC\u201d).","rel":"","context":"In \"Moray East Offshore Windfarm\"","block_context":{"text":"Moray East Offshore Windfarm","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=moray-east-offshore-windfarm"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0Screenshot-2025-04-20-174843.png?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0Screenshot-2025-04-20-174843.png?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0Screenshot-2025-04-20-174843.png?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0Screenshot-2025-04-20-174843.png?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0Screenshot-2025-04-20-174843.png?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":360501,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=360501","url_meta":{"origin":354593,"position":5},"title":"Net Zero Watch condemns new windfarm\u00a0rip-off","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/01\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Campaign group Net Zero Watch has condemned the renewables industry rip-off of electricity consumers. New data published by the Renewable Energy Foundation reveals that the cost of paying windfarms to switch off\u00a0soared by 91% in 2024. These payments are necessary when the grid has insufficient capacity to deliver the power\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"electricity consumers\"","block_context":{"text":"electricity consumers","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=electricity-consumers"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0bigstock-Wind-Turbines-On-Money-Boat-In-116357744.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0bigstock-Wind-Turbines-On-Money-Boat-In-116357744.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0bigstock-Wind-Turbines-On-Money-Boat-In-116357744.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0bigstock-Wind-Turbines-On-Money-Boat-In-116357744.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0bigstock-Wind-Turbines-On-Money-Boat-In-116357744.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=354593"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354602,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354593\/revisions\/354602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/354600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=354593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=354593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=354593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}