They add to the increasing costs of balancing the grid, which reached a total of \u00a3505m in September alone, the highest monthly cost recorded, and are expected to reach \u00a33.2bn over the next year.<\/p>\n
The costs underline the growing concerns over the pace of Great Britain\u2019s \u00a3150bn power networks upgrade<\/a>, which is failing to keep up with new renewable energy projects being connected to the grid.<\/p>\n Overall, windfarms and hydropower plants with about 9 gigawatts of capacity were paid to not generate on Wednesday, according to the consultancy LCP Delta, enough to power more than 8m typical households.<\/p>\n Instead, the grid operator was forced to pay for a string of gas and biomass plants to fire up and bought more electricity imports from Europe via high-voltage subsea power cables.<\/p>\n The record costs have come to light days after the National Energy<\/a> System Operator (Neso) was forced to call for \u201clast resort\u201d emergency assistance from its counterpart in France, which agreed to send last-minute power supplies to the UK on Monday and Friday last week.<\/p>\n \u201cThe system overall wasn\u2019t tight in terms of power supplies,\u201d said Shivam Malhotra, the head of power trading at LCP Delta. \u201cIt\u2019s the age-old story of a lack of infrastructure to transport power to where it\u2019s needed, leading to lots of windfarms being turned off.\u201d<\/p>\n Typically, windfarms in Scotland are paid to turn off because there is not enough high-voltage cabling connecting the country to areas of growing electricity demand further south.<\/p>\n \u201cTo resolve the energy needs in the south of the country Neso had to use one of their last resorts. It\u2019s quite surprising for this time of year,\u201d Malhotra said.<\/p>\n During the summer Neso faced severe grid challenges when a high-pressure heat dome led to a drop in renewable energy output and surging electricity demand to power air conditioning and refrigerators.<\/p>\n Neso was forced to bring in independent investigators to look into whistleblower claims that its staff were involved in a cover-up of a near-blackout during record high temperatures in late June.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The accusations, which were raised in parliament last week<\/a> by the shadow energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, included claims that senior bosses at Neso were \u201crisking blackouts to protect Neso\u2019s reputation\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792090813_81_500.jpg\")
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