Wasted wind threatens to cost Britain £12bn, warns National Grid

Wasted wind will add up to £12bn to energy bills unless National Grid is allowed to build hundreds of miles of new pylon lines, its new chief executive has warned.Zoë Yujnovich said the cost of switching off turbines and solar panels when the grid cannot handle their power could triple within the next five years. Such payments are already adding £1.5bn a year to power bills.Ms Yujnovich said the spiralling costs justified National Grid’s plan to build hundreds of miles of new electricity transmission lines and pay for it by more than doubling the charges it adds to power bills.However, the £31bn expansion plan is controversial, with campaigners accusing National Grid of “pillaging our countryside”.Households pay £21 a year on average to the National Grid for running the UK’s high-voltage transmission network. That cost, paid through energy bills, is on track to rise to £43 by 2031.Ms Yujnovich told The Telegraph that the doubling of charges was actually good value because otherwise consumers would instead be footing the bill for compensating wind and solar plant operators stranded by weak grid connections.She said: “The extra grid connections will reduce about £12bn of constraint costs ... which is the cost that would have to be paid to generators if they had to curtail their generation because there’s no grid connection.”So-called “constraint costs” are compensation paid to wind and solar farm operators to switch off at times when they are generating more power than the grid can handle.The issue is becoming more costly as Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, waves through more renewable power projects.The problem is more pressing in the wind industry, given many turbines are in remote areas of Scotland with poor grid connections. However, a similar problem is arising with solar plants as the rate of construction far exceeds the ability of grid operators to connect them.A report from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero forecasts that the annual cost of constraint payments could reach £10bn by 2030, all of which will be added to bills.Ms Yujnovich said the pylon lines that National Grid planned to build over the next five years would save consumers an average of £40 a year in constraint payments.However, the significant expansion of its power network is infuriating communities across the country who argue that new pylons and cables are devaluing properties and damaging landscapes.Rosie Pearson, of the Community Planning Alliance, said: “National Grid is pillaging our countryside in the name of its surging profits. The Norwich to Tilbury pylon line – the largest – is causing huge harm in East Anglia. Consumers and local communities are all losing out – the only winners are National Grid and its shareholders.”Ms Yujnovich was speaking alongside publication of National Grid’s 2025-26 financial results, which showed earnings of £3.2bn, up 15pc on last year. Investors earned 65.5p per share, a 9pc increase.