Britain’s habit of paying wind farms to switch off, then firing up gas plants elsewhere to keep the system balanced, has cost almost £1.5 billion so far this year, according to Octopus Energy’s Wasted Wind tracker. Wasted Wind
The underlying problem is straightforward. More wind power is being built, often far from where electricity is used, but grid cables have not kept pace.
When the network cannot move power south, the system operator pays generators to cut output. It then buys replacement electricity on the other side of the bottleneck, typically from gas.
The Times put the 2025 total at £1.46 billion, up from £1.23 billion last year, with replacement costs rising sharply.
That backdrop helps explain why long-duration storage projects are getting more attention, including EnergyPathways PLC's (AIM:EPP) MESH project, which is being developed as a multi-day storage hub designed to soak up surplus energy and release it later.
In a Proactive Investors interview, chief executive Ben Clube described MESH as a long-duration system aimed at “harnessing some of that wasted wind”, using a compressed air approach, with hydrogen used when power is dispatched.
EnergyPathways has also highlighted that MESH has been recognised by the government as a project of national significance, a status intended to streamline planning through a development consent order process.
The pressure to fix the system is rising because these balancing costs ultimately show up on bills.
Ofgem has separately approved major investment to upgrade energy networks, arguing that reinforcing the grid is essential to bring down long-term costs.