The loophole is centred around so-called constraints payments, which are triggered when the grid has insufficient capacity to take the power generated by renewables – mostly windfarms. While the soaring cost – more than £2 billion per year – has regularly hit the headlines in recent years, it has widely been understood as being a payment to get the windfarms to “switch off”.
But Net Zero Watch has now revealed that grid rules do not in fact force windfarms to switch off – they are free to sell or use the electricity so long as they don’t inject it into the transmission grid.Net Zero Watch’s Andrew Montford explains:
“All over the country, batteries and flywheels are being installed next to windfarm grid connections, because the operators can get a constraint payment and still sell the electricity. The consumer is therefore paying twice for the same electricity – firstly in the form of a constraint payment to divert the power from the transmission grid and then a second time when the battery releases power to the grid at a later date.”
The scandal comes just months after Net Zero Watch revealed that another loophole in the rules governing renewables was allowing operators to ignore the contracts they had signed to supply low-cost power to the grid.
Net Zero Watch’s director, Dr Benny Peiser said:
“This couldn’t come at a worse time for the consumer. It’s clear that these windfarms are only being built because the rules allow them to rip off hard-pressed households. It has to stop”.
Andrew Montford: How windfarms charge you twice for the same electricity
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