Octopus launches live ‘wasted wind' tracker to show cost of 'broken energy system'

OCTOPUS Energy has launched a live "wasted wind" tracker to show the cost of the UK's "broken energy system" to millions of customers.

The company is urging ministers to support the introduction of zonal pricing, which would split the UK into price regions based on local supply and demand.

Octopus Energy has said repeatedly that such a system could mean Scots benefit from some of the lowest energy prices in Europe.

But, the UK Government has said it will not split the country's energy market into regions if it raises people’s bills in some areas. It is unclear when a decision will be made.

Now, Octopus has launched a live “wasted wind” ticker – prominently featured on its website and visible to their 12 million monthly visitors.

At the moment, Britain has one national energy price despite the cost of producing electricity differing throughout the day across the country. 

If an offshore wind farm in Scotland produces more electricity than the network can handle it is paid to turn off, or "constrained", and a gas-fired power plant in the south of England is paid to turn on.

The tracker on Octopus Energy's website, at the time of writing (Image: Octopus Energy) For example, the UK’s biggest wind farm – Seagreen – is paid to not generate 71% of the time it could be. As a result, the effective cost of electricity it generates is four times higher than it should be.

The constraint costs – which are collected from consumers – are huge.

The ticker reveals, in real time, how much bill payers’ money is spent to turn off systems that can’t keep up with the power generated.

This is on track to cost the UK a staggering £8 billion a year by 2030.

This year, the UK has already paid £650 million to turn off wind farms – more than £200m more than the same time last year.

Soon, figures and information on current constraint costs will be added to the 7.5m bills sent every month and will feature in the Octopus app, used by 500,000 people daily.

Additional information breaking down more details on the costs of waste, and where customers’ money goes, will be added shortly.

Pete Miller, Octopus Energy’s head of customer experience, said: “It’s crazy to build wind farms where there’s no grid, then pay them to sit idle, and then pay the most expensive fossil fuel plants to generate the power instead.

“Octopus was clear with customers that the energy crisis was caused by the cost of gas, and now we need to be clear that high electricity prices are the cost of a broken energy system.”