“In 2022, a year characterized by extraordinary hikes in energy prices for consumers, we spent £215m on turning windfarms off, and then another £717m turning on gas power plants to replace the lost wind power.”
Scottish wind farms produce more than the cables to England can carry, so National Grid pays them to stop and pays gas plants in the South to start. Consumers pay three times for the same power. On Christmas Day alone that cost £9.2m. Curtailment and replacement gas cost £932m in 2022. The last big cable cost £1.2bn.