Reposted from NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
May 24, 2020 tags: wind power
By Paul Homewood
Wind farms in Britain were paid a record £.9.3m to switch off their turbines on Friday, The Telegraph can disclose.
More than 80 plants across England and Scotland were handed the so-called ‘constraint payments’, when supply outstrips demand, by the National Grid, as thousands of buildings lying empty following the coronavirus lockdown contributed to a nosedive in demand for energy.
In what has been declared a “national embarrassment” and a power management “disgrace” by campaigners, consumers will ultimately foot the bill of £6.9m to 66 Scottish plants and £1.9m to 14 offshore plants in England.
This is almost double the previous single day record payout to wind farm operators, which was £4.8m on Oct 8, 2018, when turbines were switched off because it became too windy.
It is believed the low demand for electricity on May 22 was due to windy and sunny weather this week, with solar panels likely to have produced a lot of energy, combined with the lack of demand for power given the Covid-19 lockdown which has seen many businesses close.
So worrying was the development that the National Grid issued an alert to stop it happening for a second day running.
Dr John Constable, director of the 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 the operators of 86 wind farms in Britain were handed a record of more than £136m in constraint payments last year.
RenewableUK’s director of strategic communications, Luke Clark, said: “Wind is one of the UK’s biggest power sources, generating 30% of our electricity in the first quarter of this year.
“Investing in new grid infrastructure is vital so that renewable generators can continue to provide consumers with the massive quantities of cheap electricity we need to achieve net zero emissions.
“Constraint payments are the cheapest way for National Grid to run the electricity network within its current limits.
“All types of generation, including fossil fuels, receive them, but unlike older technologies, wind farms can turn off or on within a matter of seconds, and so wind is often called on by National Grid to vary its output. So it’s actually the best way to keep bills as low as possible.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/23/wind-farms-paid-record-93m-switch-turbines/
Quite why the Telegraph included the inaccurate comments from RenewableUK, the trade body for wind farms is a mystery.
Quite clearly if investing in new grid infrastructure is needed to accommodate wind power, then that cost should be stood by renewable companies, and not passed onto the public.
It is also not true that renewable generators generate massive quantities of cheap electricity. The opposite is the case.
As for the final paragraph, I assume that must be some sort of joke. The National Grid have already told us that their costs of balancing the system are expected to be £500m higher than last year. And this is solely due to the inherent unreliability of wind and solar power to be able to supply the amount of demand on the system on a day by day and hour by hour basis.
Yesterday, constraint payments to wind farms added another £6.9m to our bills, at the extortionate rate of £80/MWh so far this month. The price is so high because wind farms are having to forgo obscene subsidies.
Currently, market prices for power are down to £14/MWh, but consumers are not able to fully benefit from this.
Instead, consumers are forced to pay prices of between £139 and £173/MWh for the six offshore wind farms currently operating under Contracts for Difference:
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Renewable UK are a ‘charity’ – funded by the wind and solar industry, who appoint all its board members – to tell the lies that they themselves would be prosecuted for telling, as commercial concerns.
Looks like there’s no problem with too much wind in the UK today, 2.23GW 8.35% of demand.
The writer has confused the Renewable Energy Foundation and Renewable UK. REF is a charity and is opposed to wind power.
Rob, they both get a mention.
John Constable is quoted from the REF.
Luke Clark is representing RenewableUK, which is not a charity, but a trade association whose remit is to sponser renewables.
All this highlights is the lack of energy storage!
Not enough Static storage capacity, not enough EV’s charging up.
When you are in a transition phase between two major sources of energy, there will be anomalies in the supply chain.
Once there are more electric vehicles and more static storage capacity (these are rapidly increasing as we speak), events like this will become less common and eventually rare or never occurring.
Of course there will always be the need for standby generators for those still foggy days this part of the world is renown for to cover the periods if no energy harvesting.
Isn’t it their job to match the output to the load; so why pay anything?
The problem is reliability and minimal land usage, neither of which are met by renewable energy. Why assault the population?
Wind farms paid record £.9.3m to switch off their turbines on Friday
Lefty-regulatory-logic. They help create fascistic industries (wind, solar, etc) that are by their nature automatically bought off via government subsidies & favorable regulations.
I thought the Scots lost the war when the Stewarts were defeated. This indicates that the Scotts got paid abour 3X as much as the Brits for nothing – I should lose so well!