Scotland suffers from a 'surplus' of renewables: consumers will pay billions to switch off wind turbines Scotland is facing a paradoxical green energy crisis. Due to the lack of power transmission capacity, the local grid is unable to transport the electricity generated by wind turbines south to densely populated England. As a result, the Energy System Operator (NESO) had to pay Scottish generators to simply switch off their turbines.
Golden downtime: By the end of September 2026, spending on such compensation ("network restrictions") in Scotland had reached a record £1.39 billion, breaking the previous year's annual record.
Who pays: Scotland's September costs were 61.9% of the UK's grid balancing costs (even though the region consumes less than 10% of the UK's energy). All these expenses are ultimately included in British electricity bills. Expert opinion: The chief executive of the British Nuclear Industry Association, Tom Greatrex, said the situation was getting out of hand and called for sustainable, low-carbon nuclear production to stop the cost build-up. There are no plans yet to decommission the wind turbines, but to remedy the situation by 2031 will require a massive £30 billion investment in Scotland's networks.
Official figures from the regulator and a detailed analysis of the collapse of the caps were published in a press release by the British Nuclear Industry Association (NIA). Economy t. me.