Scottish Wind Farms Receive Record Constraints Payments

Wind power has received mixed coverage of late. First of all, Scottish online newspaper Scotsman.com ran an article last week reporting that wind farm operators in Scotland received more than £14 million in the past two years in return for switching off their turbines at times of high power generation.

To balance things out, however, the story was brought to light by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), a charity that has publicly spoken out in the past against wind farms.

REF released information that said that since 2010, a system of ‘constraint payments’ has been operated by The National Grid to compensate wind farms if they are taken off the grid when it cannot cope with high supply.

A spokesperson from Scottish Renewables stated that constraints payments are paid to all electricity generators, including coal and gas power stations and not just wind farms. Such payments are a standard practice in that suppliers are paid not to generate at times of lower than expected demand or when there is congestion on the grid.

At Riello UPS, we see renewables, of all types, as a key part of of the future energy generation landscape and are continuing to develop products and solutions that enable customers to take full advantage of those technologies alongside ensuring power protection for critical applications.

A new series on BBC 4 – The Secret Life of the National Grid – focuses on the UK’s electric power network and reminds us just how completely dependent upon it we are. Full of interesting facts, the first episode looked at the history of the UK’s electricity use, and remembered the days when only the well-to-do had electricity, and only the very wealthiest had plug sockets as well as light switches. According to the programme (which continues next week at 9pm), in the 1950′s, one of the biggest drivers for having plug points fitted was the ability to use an electric iron!

It also looked at how the Electricity Boards actively promoted the use of electrical appliances, such as cookers and immersion heaters, meaning that Electricity showrooms became a feature on high streets up and down the country. For more information about the programme, visit the BBC website, or click here.

Did you know the UK’s National Grid (and I should imagine most other energy utilities the world over) employs a team of people who do nothing other than demand forecasting?

Electricity is one of those things we take for granted. You come into the office, switch on the lights, computer, kettle and – hey presto – it all works! Simple! So why a whole team to manage and forecast demand? Well, too much electricity entering the Grid can cause problems like overloads, circuit-breaker tripping and even blackouts. Too little and the frequency of supply falls, causing sags and brownouts. It’s great that we can sleep at night knowing there is someone out there taking care of all this so that we don’t have to! Or do we?!

With demand for energy so high and supply increasingly challenged, isn’t it time, particularly as business people, we started to adopt a more proactive stance towards energy consumption?

Measuring true electricity usage, particularly by businesses, is not straightforward but nor is it rocket science. There is a science to it, which, with a bit of professional guidance is within the grasp of most business professionals. But imagine what you could do armed with that information? Firstly, you’d have greater ability to consolidate you energy bills with your supplier and get a cheaper rate perhaps. With a better idea of peaks and troughs in consumption you could even consider money saving initiatives like ‘Peak Lopping’, which is a way of reducing energy bills and securing supply during peak times. It is the practice by which the user has a contractual agreement with their energy supplier to switch from mains to back-up generator during peak periods. In return for this ‘interruptible’ supply, the user gets a significant reduction in their energy bill. A by-product is that the power continuity plan, UPS and back-up supplies are being utilised and tested under load conditions. And if you have an accurate graph of energy consumption, you will have an accurate idea of power protection requirements in terms of sizing your generator and back-up UPS.

At the moment, most companies are happy to leave this in the hands of their utility supplier to ‘guess at’ and manage but how do you know that their ‘assumptions’ or readings about how much energy you use are accurate and that they have your best interests at heart? The time will come I believe - and in the not too distant future – when demand forecasting and energy consumption management will be mandatory practice for big business. But you might as well start now so that when it does happen, you’re ahead of the game.

For more information about demand forecasting and measuring energy consumption read The Power Protection Guide.