It reads “Known as constraint payments, they are paid out by the National Grid to incentivise wind farms to reduce output when more energy is generated than can be used locally or exported to consumers elsewhere in the UK, usually as a result of higher wind speeds” |
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Torygraph is Paywall, so have copied
“Dr John Constable, the director of the REF, said: “The paradoxical outcome is that wind farm developers actually make more money when they are paid to reduce output rather than when they are selling normally on the market. The British consumer is being ripped off, and developers are laughing all the way to the bank.
“All you hear from Ed Miliband is that more renewable energy will make energy cheap – but unless he deals with the constraint payment programme, that is simply an illusion.” |
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"The payouts, which will ultimately be added to consumer bills, have been made almost every day this month and have varied between £227,192 and £8,408 per day.
"
Seems an oddd system. If the grid does not need power why not, just say so to the producer. I'm sure there is a perfectly logical reason but on the face of it seems very odd, especially as the bill payer picks up the tab |
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By *usybee73 OP Man 12 weeks ago
in the sticks |
"Torygraph is Paywall, so have copied
“Dr John Constable, the director of the REF, said: “The paradoxical outcome is that wind farm developers actually make more money when they are paid to reduce output rather than when they are selling normally on the market. The British consumer is being ripped off, and developers are laughing all the way to the bank.
“All you hear from Ed Miliband is that more renewable energy will make energy cheap – but unless he deals with the constraint payment programme, that is simply an illusion.”"
Thank you for the quote 👍 so people are paying for them not to work? How can that be fair, especially to those who the labour proposes to represent? |
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"Torygraph is Paywall, so have copied
“Dr John Constable, the director of the REF, said: “The paradoxical outcome is that wind farm developers actually make more money when they are paid to reduce output rather than when they are selling normally on the market. The British consumer is being ripped off, and developers are laughing all the way to the bank.
“All you hear from Ed Miliband is that more renewable energy will make energy cheap – but unless he deals with the constraint payment programme, that is simply an illusion.”
Thank you for the quote 👍 so people are paying for them not to work? How can that be fair, especially to those who the labour proposes to represent?"
Not familiar with any of the above, but since fitting myself up with solar, battery etc a certain fishy elec supplier does have a tariff that pass on very cheap or free electricity at times of surplus, usually in the middle of the night. I imagine other suppliers do to.  |
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"The payouts, which will ultimately be added to consumer bills, have been made almost every day this month and have varied between £227,192 and £8,408 per day."
"Seems an oddd system. If the grid does not need power why not, just say so to the producer. I'm sure there is a perfectly logical reason but on the face of it seems very odd, especially as the bill payer picks up the tab"
The electrical grid is very delicate, and needs to have a fine balance of power inputs. Too much and things start breaking, too little and things stop working. You have to have just the right amount of power.
To balance it the grid's owners predict power usage every 10 minutes, and hold auctions every half an hour. Companies offer to generate more power for a certain price, or to generate less for a certain price. If an adjustment is needed, the grid will tell the cheapest operator to generate more/less, and then pay them whatever they bid at.
The job used to be fairly simple with most power stations having a slow ramp up/down time, so supply was fairly constant. It's now much more difficult with wind and solar being very unpredictable. Most of the reason why we are building interconnectors with Europe is so that we can grab/dump power more easily to balance the grid out. |
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"The payouts, which will ultimately be added to consumer bills, have been made almost every day this month and have varied between £227,192 and £8,408 per day.
Seems an oddd system. If the grid does not need power why not, just say so to the producer. I'm sure there is a perfectly logical reason but on the face of it seems very odd, especially as the bill payer picks up the tab
The electrical grid is very delicate, and needs to have a fine balance of power inputs. Too much and things start breaking, too little and things stop working. You have to have just the right amount of power.
To balance it the grid's owners predict power usage every 10 minutes, and hold auctions every half an hour. Companies offer to generate more power for a certain price, or to generate less for a certain price. If an adjustment is needed, the grid will tell the cheapest operator to generate more/less, and then pay them whatever they bid at.
The job used to be fairly simple with most power stations having a slow ramp up/down time, so supply was fairly constant. It's now much more difficult with wind and solar being very unpredictable. Most of the reason why we are building interconnectors with Europe is so that we can grab/dump power more easily to balance the grid out."
Very informative. Thanks |
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