Britain hit a fresh wind energy record earlier this month, while Viking and several other large wind farms collected payments for idling due to transmission constraints.
On Friday, 5 December, between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m., the national grid received a total wind input of 23,825 MW, according to Robin Hawkes, Octopus Energy’s data visualization engineer. The previous high was 22,711 MW.
In a LinkedIn post, Hawkes noted that the output could have been about 3,000 MW higher if the transmission network could have carried the extra power.
Instead, Viking, Moray East, Moray West, and Seagreen—some of the country’s largest and newest wind farms—were all constrained off despite ample wind, meaning they could not contribute to the grid.
Hawkes, who two years ago created a widely used live generation map for major UK wind farms, said his figures come directly from the National Energy System Operator (NESO).
“What the wind records don’t reflect is how much output was lost due to transmission constraints, when the grid asks wind farms (often located in Scotland) to reduce output even though demand exists elsewhere,” he explained. “The wind was present, the wind farms were available, and there was spare capacity, but we couldn’t use it.”
Constraint payments have been a hot topic locally since the 443 MW Viking wind farm started operating in summer 2024.
Data from the Renewable Energy Foundations indicates that SSE Renewables, Viking’s owner, has received close to £9 million this year for switching Viking off.
Meanwhile, NESO has announced a new process intended to prioritize energy generation and storage projects by need rather than by what’s simply available.
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