可再生能源基金会的一份最近的报告显示：4月5日和6日，由于英国6个风电场几个小时的停产，电网公司支付了89万英镑的费用。当时苏格兰电网正经历着发电过剩，需要消减电力供应量。电网由于减产而支付费用，并且在有些情况下这种费用将达到电力价格的20倍，这个结果会导致税收损失，而这些花费最终也将由纳税者承担。
Scottish wind farms were paid a total of £890,000 to not provide clean energy to the country’s grid as the amount of power produced from variable sources increased. Figures released by the National Grid and compiled by industry association the Renewable Energy Foundation show that six wind farms received ‘constraint’ payments during a period of extreme wind conditions, because the Scottish grid network could not absorb all the energy being generated. Payments made to the wind operators were way above market level, the figures reveal, with the Farr wind farm, for example, being paid £800 per megawatt-hour – 20 times the market value of the electricity it was producing. Dr Lee Moroney at the Renewable Energy Foundation told NewNet the surge in payments that took place on 5 and 6 April due to the region’s weather conditions highlight the problems with how the system is set up. ‘The market is not working properly when there are constraints in the system,’ she said. Moroney said the problem stems from wind farm operators being allowed to set their own rates for constraint payments. If a full, competitive market was in place operators may be encouraged to bring these down in an attempt to encourage network operators to select their power source for the temporary switch off when generation spikes. Without a vast array of wind farms in operation across Scotland, however, the National Grid is forced to pay above-market prices. The Renewable Energy Foundation said that the scale and pace of wind development in the UK needs to be rethought, with more emphasis placed on the provision of economical solutions to the grid-balancing problem. Moroney told NewNet that although more wind farms coming online would encourage operators to bring down constraint payments, it would also result in additional variable power sources. Instead, she recommends a restructuring of the subsidy regimes across the UK to promote more flexible renewable energy resources. ‘Subsidies should be spread across all renewable energy forms to encourage diverse technology growth,’ Moroney said.