Key facts
- Balancing costs reached £47.9 million on Wednesday.
- September balancing costs totaled £505 million.
- Annual balancing costs are projected at £3.2 billion.
- 9 gigawatts of renewable capacity were paid not to generate on Wednesday.
The cost of balancing Great Britain's power grid has surged to nearly £50 million per day, with record-high expenses attributed to bottlenecks in transmitting power. On Wednesday, the grid operator paid £47.9 million to turn off wind farms in areas with excess electricity and activate gas plants where supplies were scarce. These costs, which are passed on to consumers, are expected to reach £3.2 billion over the next year, highlighting concerns about the pace of the UK's £150 billion power network upgrade failing to keep up with new renewable energy projects. Approximately 9 gigawatts of wind and hydro capacity were paid not to generate power, while the grid relied on gas and biomass plants and electricity imports from Europe. The National Energy System Operator (Neso) recently sought emergency assistance from France due to these grid challenges.