Cost of switching off wind farms during gale force winds hits £1billion this year - with costs passed on to YOU through energy bills

By SAM MERRIMAN, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Published: 18:19, 11 August 2026 | Updated: 18:23, 11 August 2026 The cost to the public of paying wind farms to switch off when the national grid can’t cope has reached £1billion this year in record time. The cost comes from paying wind farms in remote areas to turn off when they are generating too much power to be transported – while also paying gas power plants near cities to cover for this. Britain reached the £1billion milestone last Saturday – two months earlier than in 2025 after the war in Iran increased gas prices – with this passed on to consumers through energy bills. The cost to the public of so-called ‘constraint payments’ for 2025 was almost £1.5billion and it is on track to hit a record high in 2026. The most expensive day this year cost £21million on July 2 alone. The National Energy System Operator (Neso), which manages the electricity network, predicts that constraint costs will soar to £3.2billion over the next 12 months and could hit £8billion by 2030. The £1billion figure was tracked by Wasted Wind, a website backed by household energy supplier Octopus Energy, which is lobbying the Government to address the issue by offering cheaper power to households near wind farms when it’s windy. Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy, said: ‘The way Britain’s electricity system is run is bonkers - you wouldn’t grow tomatoes in your garden, only to bin them and buy expensive, imported ones from the shop. So why are we doing the same thing with electricity? ‘We should use this wind to give people cheap power locally, instead of paying billions to throw it away. That’d be a welcome relief for families and businesses - it’s low hanging fruit that should absolutely appeal to a government which is focused on cost of living and devolution.’ The cost to the public of paying wind farms to switch off when the national grid can’t cope has reached £1billion this year in record time  Greg Jackson, the founder of Octopus Energy, said the way Britain’s electricity system is run is 'bonkers' Constraint payments, which were introduced in 2010, are handed out when the amount of wind power generated exceeds local demand but cannot be moved elsewhere in the country because of insufficient grid infrastructure. Wind farms are switched off due to a lack of transmission cables able to transport power from Scotland to areas with the greatest demand, such as the south of England. Expensive gas-fired power plants near cities are then paid to fire up instead while the wind power is ‘wasted’. Wind farm operators have agreements with Neso to provide a transmission service, but if wind farms are turned off they are entitled to compensation in the form of constraint payments. ‘Wasted wind’ costs have more than doubled in just two years because, as the number of wind farms has grown, so too have the constraint payments. Multibillion-pound upgrades are under way to reinforce the national grid but this is said to be exacerbating the issue in the short-term as cables have to be taken out of service while work is carried out. Neso warned four years ago that Britain’s national electricity market was ‘not designed for net-zero’ and called for ‘regional pricing’ to bring costs for consumers down. But this was ruled out under Sir Keir Starmer’s government over fears of a postcode lottery. A Neso spokesman said: ‘We are determined to play our part in keeping constraint costs as low as possible. Keeping constraint costs down over the long term will depend on reforms to the electricity market and continued network expansion, which are outside of Neso’s control.’