Britain curtailed 1,789 GWh of wind over 30 days, paying wind farms £51.5 million to cut output
By Eve
The National Energy System Operator curtailed 1,789 gigawatt-hours of wind generation over a 30 day period, with net payments to wind farms for reducing output totalling £51.5 million ($69.4 million). That equated to one-fifth of potential grid-scale wind generation, or 17% once estimated output from smaller wind farms on local networks is included. Scottish wind farms accounted for over 99% of the curtailed power, as transmission lines to England reach capacity on windy days, with the B6 boundary the tightest bottleneck. The figures were reported by The Cool Down, citing Electricity Live data shared on Reddit.
Why it matters
Constraint costs from grid bottlenecks are ultimately borne by households, and they show how much usable low carbon power is stranded in Scotland while gas plants elsewhere ramp up. For CPOs and procurement teams, this strengthens the case for demand that can absorb surplus power and for siting and flexibility decisions that account for regional grid constraints.
Source
- Original title
- “Grid bottlenecks leave Britain paying wind farms to slow down and gas plants to ramp up”
- Published
- 5 November 2026
In this story
- Topic
- Grid & Energy
- Place
- United Kingdom
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