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Britain spent £1.5bn in 2025 to turn off wind farms and fire up gas plants when electric grid couldn’t cope
Credit: James Flanders, Tara Evans · Published: 30 Dec 2025 · thescottishsun.co.uk ~~
Britain shelled out almost £1.5billion to turn off wind farms and fire up gas plants this year when the electric grid could not cope.
The bill, recovered through levies on household and business energy tariffs, is about a fifth higher than in 2024 as wind capacity increases faster than the cables needed for it.
The National Energy System Operator, which replaced the National Grid in balancing supply and demand, pays wind farms in remote areas to stop generating if transmission lines are full, then buys power closer to where it is needed.
Figures from Octopus Energy’s Wasted Wind tracker show total “constraint” costs rose from £1.23billion to £1.46billion.
Payments to wind farms dipped from £395million to £380million but the cost of replacing lost renewable output – usually with gas – jumped from £835million to £1.08billion.
Octopus – the UK’s biggest energy supplier – said costs could hit £8billion a year by 2030 without reform and said the system is “broken”.
Industry regulator Ofgem said constraints had added £15 to a typical annual bill.
This month it approved around £70billion to upgrade high-voltage networks over five years, which it says will add about £60 to bills by 2030 – but will avoid even higher constraint charges.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said the grid upgrade would cut costs and improve energy security.
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