UK’s wasted wind power laid bare by new Octopus tracking tool
UK’s wasted wind power laid bare by new Octopus tracking tool
Britain wasted £649m already this year powering down wind farms as there is not enough grid capacity to send renewable energy where it is needed, utility finds
okay, so build more batteries
Octopus are an energy company, are they not allowed to build their own storage? Or do they just grift off the National Grid and are asking the government to do it
This is part of Octopus's push for regional pricing so that demand can be encouraged local to the generation by dropping the local price. They argue that the saved money on curtailment and repurchasing power in a different location would mean prices could drop across the country
Are they not a for profit company?
Yes, but also greater transmission capacity. And dinorwig style hydro batteries are also super cool.
We haven't got many geographical sites that support pumped storage. They got surveyed back in the 50 and 60s and the ones that were suitable got built.
I don’t think Octopus are a DNO so don’t have any infrastructure. Aren’t they merely a reseller of electricity?
There are a number of projects to add additional HVDC links for power sharing and also a couple of battery storage stations.
The issue with National Grid is that it is subject to funding cycles, currently 5 years and the next one starting April 2026, so have to present justification for government money to improve the grid. They can present white papers during the funding cycle for re openers and sometimes money is spent at risk.
There is a £60bn investment going in to the grid over the next 5 years.
The flow of electricity is now controlled by NESO who are now a government entity, and currently in a separation period from National Grid.
Also, NESO just switched the queue for grid connection applications from "First Come, First Served" to "First Ready, First Connected" because the backlog is so long for DNOs (Distribution Network Operators) that there's a lot of zombied projects that rushed to get the application without planning permission or funding because the wait is so long.
Hopefully this coupled with additional funding and planning reform will be enough to get the extra transmission capacity that is so desperately needed, even for energy storage sites.
So a private company is shaming the government into building infrastructure in their next funding, in the name of public good and wasted sales - that's fair enough