The Seagreen offshore wind farm, one of the country’s largest, has been directed by the National Grid to curtail its generation over the weekend.
This decision comes as the UK’s power grid enlisted the help of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station to ensure the security of the electricity supply.
In order to ensure system security, the UK’s electricity system operator issued an Emergency Instruction to the Seagreen wind farm as part of its routine suite of actions.
EnAppSys Director Phil Hewitt weighed in on the issue, noting the unprecedented circumstances witnessed on the weekend in the GB electricity market.
Hewitt said: “It has been an unprecedented day in the GB electrity market with negative prices for 15 straight hours from 2am until 5pm. This means that for power stations on renewable CfDs they breach the six-hour limit and the CfD ceases to operate meaning they do not get the benefit of the CfD payments.
“The rational thing to do in this case is for the wind farm to switch off, which they do. The even more obvious thing is that if the system operator requires additional volume then the wind farms should be able to provide cheap MWs. Both things happened today.”
National Grid ESO declined to comment when approached by Energy Live News.
