Offshore wind farm development off the coast of Scotland could be curtailed under new plans by the UK Government to bring down electricity bills.
Ministers intend to veto new clean energy projects if the power they generate cannot be carried by the grid, the Chancellor John Healey has said.
The new policy proposal comes amid growing concerns about the cost of paying generators to switch off turbines when the grid is unable to cope. These constraint charges are predicted to add up to £100 to energy bills by the end of the decade.
A new record of more than £47m was spent last Tuesday on the over-supply of wind power, according to Wasted Wind, a tracker run by Octopus Energy. Almost £7m went to wind farm owners to switch off their turbines and more than £40m to gas plant owners and other energy sources to replace the wind turbines.
In September the National Audit Office warned that homes and businesses would be confronted with a potential annual bill of £7.8bn by 2030 to deal with the problem. Wind farms have been allowed to connect to the network before grid upgrades have been carried out, and many of the upgrades have been delayed.
Mr Healey told The Times that a new cost control framework for energy would be introduced. “We’ll be hard-headed about what we build,” he said, adding that the change does not mark a retreat from clean energy, insisting it is a “credible route to it.”
Adam Bell, a former government energy official who works for the consultancy PF Global, said the government could potentially choose not to approve any Scottish offshore wind farms, where grid connections were less advanced.
For the next allocation round, ministers could limit project approvals based on the grid upgrade schedule.
Mr Healey’s comments mark a further indication of an energy policy designed around a dual-fuel strategy following last week’s approval of the Jackdaw gas field off the coast of Aberdeen. Mr Healey supports approval of the Rosebank oil field west of Shetland.
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, who remains opposed to Rosebank, said Britain faced an “affordability challenge” posed by the transition to net zero. That required the government to “keep people with us” and “doing this transition in a way that still delivers affordability”, she said.
This is a shift from her predecessor Ed Miliband’s hardline approach and is in keeping with Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s “pragmatism”.
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