The issue is set to become one of the biggest new headaches for Miatta Fahnbulleh, the newly appointed Energy Secretary, because the scale of the costs is drawing increasing political attention.
Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, said: “We are already spending £1.5bn a year on wind farms, not to generate energy but to turn them off when it’s too windy. These balancing payments are set to rise by up to £10bn by 2030.
“All of that gets passed on to consumer and business bills. Labour need to stop their mad dash for renewables, and prioritise cheap, reliable energy.”
The growth of such payments is also concerning suppliers who have to collect the money from customers. Domestic customer debts have risen from £1.4bn four years ago to around £6bn now and are predicted to hit £7bn next year.
Alex Schoch, from Octopus Energy, said: “Britain is paying a fortune because our electricity system is no longer fit for purpose.
“An outdated system is forcing us to switch off turbines in Scotland while firing up costly gas plants elsewhere in England.”
Dr John Constable, director of the Renewable Energy Foundation, said: “Random generation such as wind is inherently difficult to manage and therefore expensive because it causes network costs to rise either through constraint payments or the cost of building a new grid to reduce those constraints.
“The UK consumer is paying the price of decades of governmental naivety and regulatory negligence.”
A spokesman for Energy Networks Association, which represents the UK’s energy network operators, said the grid connection system was being reformed.
“Larger generation projects that require a transmission impact assessment are currently undergoing connections reform, led by Neso in collaboration with network operators,” he said.
A spokesman for Ms Fahnbulleh’s Energy Department said it was working to accelerate expansion of the UK’s power grids and so reduce future costs. “We are reversing decades of underinvestment to upgrade and build out the grid.”
Ofgem and Neso were approached for comment.
