The National Grid. We built the wind and forgot the wires.
Last year Britain paid wind farms to switch off and gas stations to switch on instead. It cost 1.9 billion quid, all on your bill, and it could be 8 billion by 2030.
THE GIST ON THE NATIONAL GRID: "Wind Farms and Gas"
Why did Britain pay wind farms to switch off?
Last year, Britain paid wind farms to switch off, and paid natural gas stations to switch on instead. That cost about £1.9 billion, all of it on your bill, and by 2030 it could be £8 billion a year. Because the electricity exists, but the wires don't.
Wind is now the biggest source of energy in this country. Most of it gets made in Scotland, unsurprisingly, but most of the people who need it are in England, and the cable running south is awful.
What happens when the wind blows hard?
There's more electricity than the wires can carry, and something has to give. It's the wind farm. It's told to stop, and it gets compensated for a connection it isn't getting.
Then a gas station somewhere near London gets paid to make the same electricity again. Just more expensive and dirtier.
Turning the wind down cost about £350 million last year. The gas that replaced it cost over a billion.
Are we building the wires?
Now we're building wires. The National Audit Office looked at it last week. Of the 80 projects that need doing by 2030, 16 have been done. They flagged 11 as urgently needing speeding up, and of course none of them have.
Some are now set to finish after 2030, which is a real surprise given our track record.
Why isn't it getting built?
We built the renewable wind farms and they work. The power got cheap and none of it reaches us.
Because a wind farm pays. Somebody builds it, somebody profits, and there's a queue for them. A pylon doesn't pay anybody. It just drags someone else's electricity across your field. So we built all the things that make money and none of them join up, which is the same reason we've got apps and no trains.
Would you accept pylons near you for cheaper power?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
How much did wind and gas switching cost?
About £1.9 billion last year, all on the bill, and it could be £8 billion a year by 2030.
Why is wind switched off?
Most wind is made in Scotland and most demand is in England. When it blows hard there is more electricity than the wires can carry, so wind farms are paid to stop and gas stations are paid to cover.
How many grid projects are done?
Of the 80 projects needed by 2030, 16 have been done, according to the National Audit Office.
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