In the recent April Operational Forum, National Grid revealed that substantial “constraint” payments were made to a number of Scottish wind farms in the first week of April1. A constraint occurs when the grid system or a section of the system is unable to absorb all the electricity being generated, and some generators that are contracted to generate must be asked to stand down.
The April event occurred because the Scottish grid network could not absorb all the energy being generated, and chose to constrain wind power off the system, paying very high prices to compensate wind generators for the lost income, in some cases as high as 20 times the value of the electricity which would otherwise have been generated. In total approximately £890,000 pounds was paid over a few hours to six wind farms, these costs being ultimately destined to pass on to the consumer.
Summary
• The United Kingdom failed to reach its 10% renewable electricity target for 2010, producing only 6.5% of electricity from renewable sources.
• This shortfall occurred in spite of a subsidy to renewable generators amounting to approximately £5 billion in the period 2002 to 2010.
A new report from Pöyry1, available to the public in summary form as The Challenges of Intermittency in North West European Power Markets, crystallizes the current state of discussion of the degree to which a geographically distributed wind fleet connected by a European Supergrid could resolve the impact of wind intermittency on the electricity system and its markets.
REF has responded to the DECC consultation on the Revised Draft National Policy Statement with particular emphasis on EN-3 the Renewable Energy Infrastructure and related documents.
The following information relating to the wind farm Noise Working Group was released by the Department of Trade and Industry following a Freedom of Information request.
REF Publishes New Collection of Papers on Wind Power Variabiity in Germany, Denmark, and Ireland
At a launch event in central London on the 29th of July 2010 the Renewable Energy Foundation launched its Research Monographs on Energy with a new collection of papers by the leading Danish engineer, Paul-Frederik Bach.1
The Variability of Wind Power: Collected Papers 2009-2011 (x + 53pp) brings together five papers all concerned with the topic of wind power variability, and all grounded in rigorous examination of large bodies of empirical data.
Read more: Paul-Frederik Bach, The Variability of Wind Power
Danish and German experience of wind power is critical to our understanding of the potential for wind power development in the UK. REF has commissioned Mr Bach, formerly Planning Director for the Danish grid operator, Eltra, to conduct a major empirical study of the impact of wind power energy flows on spot prices in Denmark and Germany.