Viking third in list for unused energy in 2024 despite August opening
SSE earns £9.25m for keeping wind farm offline over five months
THE VIKING wind farm ranked third for the highest amount of energy going unused in the UK in 2024 – despite only opening in August.
The SSE-owned project saw over 464,000 MWh of energy constrained in the final five months of the year, data from the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) shows.
Only two wind farms – Seagreen and Moray East – had higher totals, with both being offshore developments.
SSE earned more than £9.25 million in constraint payments for keeping the Viking wind farm offline in 2024.
The payments are given to energy companies when they are asked to reduce their output because the energy they are producing cannot be used by the National Grid.
December saw the highest amount of energy being discarded at the Viking site yet, with 135,138 MWh not being used.
However, the amount of money being paid to SSE per MWh discarded also dropped significantly – to just £6 per MWh.
It had been as high as £29 per MWh when the Viking development went live in August.
That meant SSE was paid only £817,420 for the unused energy last month, having earned as much as £2.7 million for 103,945 MWh in discarded energy in October.
SSE Renewables said decisions on how much energy to constrain were made by the National Energy System Operator, not it or any other individual company.
“Ultimately constraint payments are made when the energy being produced in one part of the country can’t get to another because there simply isn’t yet the capacity to carry it,” the company said.
“The answer is to invest in electricity networks to build more electricity infrastructure which will enable more clean energy to be transported to homes and businesses.”
It said it did not agree with the terminology that the energy being constrained was “discarded”, and added constraint payment prices were set by market participants under a framework regulated by Ofgem.
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Sustainable Shetland’s Frank Hay, however, said this was a cost this was ultimately being “passed on to energy consumers”.
“The more remote generators seem to be the first to be constrained off,” he said.
“It comes as no surprise to see Viking near the top of the list for constraints, having seen the turbines standing idle for extended periods.
“Unfortunately, this is likely to be a regular occurrence until bottlenecks in the grid further south are dealt with. This is likely to be some years away.”
The anti-windfarm campaigner added that it was a “costly mistake” to approve the Viking wind farm and interconnector cable without ensuring the grid was capable of managing the output.
“SSE must have been aware of the situation but chose to go along with it, secure in the knowledge that they get paid whatever,” he said.
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