Cost of balancing Great Britain’s power grid reaches nearly £50m a day
Summary
The cost to balance Great Britain’s power grid has reached nearly £50 million in one day, mainly because windfarms had to be turned off due to problems moving electricity around the country. To keep the grid stable, the operator had to pay for gas and biomass plants to run and buy extra power from Europe.Key Facts
- The grid operator paid £47.9 million on one day to manage electricity supply problems.
- Windfarms and hydropower plants with 9 gigawatts capacity were paid to stop generating power.
- The balancing costs topped £505 million in September, the highest monthly total recorded.
- These costs are added to household energy bills and are expected to reach £3.2 billion over the next year.
- The main cause is the slow upgrade of the power network, which cannot handle new renewable energy projects.
- Electricity had to be imported from Europe via subsea power cables to meet demand.
- The National Energy System Operator (Neso) recently requested emergency power help from France.
- Neso faced criticism and an investigation over how it managed a near-blackout during a heatwave in June.
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