The cost of balancing Great Britain's power grid has reached near-record highs, with the grid operator paying almost £50m on Wednesday. This figure, £47.9m, was spent to manage electricity supply by switching off windfarms in areas with excess power and activating gas plants in regions facing shortages.
These costs are attributed to bottlenecks in transmitting power across the country, particularly a lack of infrastructure to move power from windfarms in areas like Scotland to demand centres in the south. Consultancy LCP Delta reported that wind and hydro plants with approximately 9 gigawatts of capacity were paid not to generate on Wednesday.
The September balancing costs totalled £505m, marking the highest monthly cost ever recorded. Over the next year, these costs are projected to reach £3.2bn, adding to concerns about the pace of Great Britain's £150bn power networks upgrade.