Post #1087552
2026-04-10 09:28 UTC
Any overflowing water would be bad news for the grid so we do everything we can to avoid it.
The result is that we pay generators in Scotland to reduce their output so the cup doesn't overflow.
Wind farms are usually picked for this because they are the cheapest to switch off and can provide the volumes of energy needed to resolve the constraints.
Replies (2)
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@robhawkes@fosstodon.org 2026-04-10 09:29
However, the electricity is still needed in the south (it's still thirsty) so what happens next is that we replace that lost wind energy at the last minute with electricity generated via (usually) gas. This is not only a waste of low-carbon energy, it's also expensive. You can see this play out on my map and in the attached visual: 🚦 Traffic-coloured lines show boundary constraints 🟡 Yellow rings show wind farms that were turned off 🔴 Red rings show gas plants that were turned on
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@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk 2026-04-11 07:24
@robhawkes The other part is building bigger buckets to store the power in.