New research has revealed that wind farm operators are essentially ‘playing the system’ to collect heftier sums by not generating electricity during times when the transmission network is at risk of being overloaded. The Telegraph has the story.
A paper published in the International Journal of Industrial Organisation concluded that companies were “exaggerating” claims about the amount of energy they expected to produce at times when the transmission network risked being overloaded.
The behaviour increases the likelihood that wind farms will be paid to shut down, as well as resulting in higher payments than would otherwise have been given, to those asked to stop producing electricity, according to the economists who wrote the paper.
The findings will heighten concerns about Rishi Sunak’s decision to relax the effective ban on onshore turbines introduced by David Cameron in 2015.
The ban was partly introduced in response to concerns among Tory MPs about the level of consumer subsidies paid to energy firms operating wind farms.
Shortly before Mr. Cameron’s ban, this newspaper revealed that £11.1 million had been paid to a single wind farm to shut down over a three year period.
Last year, companies were paid £227 million not to produce electricity, according to the Renewable Energy Foundation, which compiles energy data. …
Read more: Wind Farms ‘Gaming System to Inflate Millions Earned When Asked to Halt Production’
