Windfarms paid to shut down

I promise to generate no electricity if the government pays me a million quid. If they like I will promise to not generate 30GW or more, whatever is necessary really.

This bit tickled me most:

As far as I remember from school, electricity can't be 'stored' - not in that context anyway - can it?

Oi, get in line, you. I'm already being paid for not having sheep and not growing crops.

It can, in pumped storage power stations, like Dinorwig in Wales.

Ah right, didn't know that. Why can we only have two of them then?

I'm promising not to generate more than you so that make me richer than you:-)

energy could not be transferred to England and so generation had to be cut."

That's the real reason. But why pay 'em just because they are generating when the power isn't needed? That is *their* problem not ours or National Grids.

We'll be paying 'em when the wind doesn't blow next. Oh we already do, via the subsidies. B-(

I don't understand this bit either:

"He [Mr Larque] added: "On the evening of the 5th into the 6th of April, the wind in Scotland was high, it was raining heavily, which also created more hydro energy than normal."

Surely the amount of hydro generated is down to how much open the valves, any water that cannot be used to top up the reservoirs just goes down the spillways.

' cos they are behind the scenes things, disguised, and not very sexy publicity wise. Also cost a lot of money boring out mountains.

Don't forget too, that on that occasion the National Grid had somehow isolated Scotland and power transfer to Wales would have been impossible so they say!

I'm also thinking of getting dosh from not generating electricity!

But who believes that? The whole purpose of the National Grid is like any other network to prevent failure on one point breaking the system.

Quite, this bit doesn't ring true either.

Hydro-electric pumped storage. Or sell it to some other benighted heathens and put the cash on deposit until we need to turn it back into kW.

Not till Steve Firth and myself have been paid for not generating ours your not.

I'm third in the queue then! Anyone else, please form an orderly line behind!

They probably use Welsh volts.

But the power was needed. A fault outside the control of the wind generator people meant it couldn't be used. Which is presumably covered by a contract of some sort.

If they built then somewhere a little less windy then they would not have this sort of problem.

The problem is also that Dinorwig is "upside down" compared to what's really needed. It has the ability to suddenly _generate_ on demand, but it's much less suitable for suddenly pumping, so as to store a wind excess.

Newer systems (the Canary Islands is one, and there are some Greek island systems) are optimised the other way to Dinorwig, so as to act as buffers for wind generation.

"ARWadsworth" wrote in news:ipk0oc$h11$1 @dont-email.me:

Personaly I think they've been ripped off. I'd be happy to not produce electricty for the national grid at half the price these waindfarm wallahs charge.

It would be fair enough to compensate for lost "sales", but the article states that payments of up to 20 times the cost of the energy that might have otherwise been exported were paid. Why?

Corruption springs to mind. Why are we paying for them to not wear out their machines? I wouldn't be surprised to find some Scottish MPs behind it somewhere.