Families are being hit with rising energy bills and face a forecast surge in the charge paid to switch off wind farms when the grid cannot cope with the power produced. The Conservatives have criticised Labour's "net zero obsession" and warned that the infrastructure needed to harness wind power does not yet exist.
Payments are made to turn off wind farms when surges in electricity production threaten to overwhelm the grid. Further payments, which make up the majority of so-called "constraint costs", are paid to generate electricity from gas near the parts of the country where power is needed.
Conservative warnings on energy costs
Shadow Energy Secretary Andrew Bowie warned that "families are being clobbered by rising bills and face a more than doubling of the charge for switching off wind farms".
He added: "We are wasting huge amounts on wind power that racks up eye-watering costs and then dumps the bill on consumers. Labour needs to get a grip on energy costs instead of making working people pay for their net zero obsession."
Shadow Energy Minister Luke Evans said: "While households and businesses are being charged some of the highest electricity costs in the world, the Government is paying wind farms to switch off as the grid simply cannot handle it. Wind power has a role to play in our energy supply, but it's clear that the infrastructure isn't there to support it. To deliver cheap and reliable energy now, Labour must overturn its ban on new North Sea oil and gas licenses."
Balancing charge forecast to rise
The Conservatives warn that the so-called "balancing charge" paid by suppliers is due to rise to £27.06 for every megawatt hour of electricity used between April and September 2027, up from £12.49 today. They say the forecast has "jumped by a quarter in the space of four weeks".
They state: "Turbines are being switched off faster than ever, and the operator's mid-year performance report records that a record 1.8 terawatt hours of wind was 'constrained off' in September, that balancing costs that month reached £553million against a benchmark of £455million."
Evans warned that the country is being landed with multi-million pound bills "because of a system that cannot make proper use of the energy it generates" which is "neither fair nor sustainable for taxpayers".
Government response and grid reform
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: "Britain's outdated grid is holding the country back. New wind farms, solar projects and businesses are stuck waiting years for connections, keeping us reliant on global fossil fuels and driving up costs for households. We're tackling decades of historic underinvestment by reforming the connections queue, launching Great British Grid to unlock billions of pounds of public and private investment, and ending the red tape that slows projects down by allowing developers to build their own connections."
The Government says it is working to halve the time it takes to build new transmission infrastructure by reforming the planning system, supporting supply chains, and "streamlining" regulation.
