We’re throwing away billions in wind power — here’s what we can do about it
The UK has a brilliant, blustery superpower: wind. We generate massive amounts of some of the cheapest, cleanest energy in the world.
But there’s a billion-pound catch. Our energy grid has a massive bottleneck. When the wind blows hard, the power lines, especially those bringing energy down from Scotland, get congested. To stop the grid from overloading, wind farms are paid to switch their turbines off. Then, we run out of energy and we pay expensive gas generators to turn on.
We know. This is bonkers. It’s called wind curtailment and balancing, and the costs are absolutely staggering. In fact, we firmly believe that the power should be given away or discounted instead of paying to switch off turbines.
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Last year, Britain paid almost £1.5 billion switching off wind turbines and switching on gas plants to replace them: literally paying to throw clean energy away. And the meter is still running. Check out the live total here.
So far in 2026, more than £660 million has been spent on this folly. By 2030, it's projected the costs of turning off the turbines will rise to a staggering £3.7 billion.
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The flexible parachute
Plans are underway to build more power lines to transport all that delicious power south, but there’s a solution we can use right now: consumer flexibility.
Flexibility isn't just about waiting until 8pm to put the washing machine on. With more households investing in solar panels and home batteries, our houses are becoming mini power plants. Plus, a huge swing towards electrification is underway as the world responses to insane gas price volatility: customers are switching to heat pumps and electric vehicles in droves.
By letting smart tech such as Intelligent Octopus Go do the heavy lifting, we can automatically soak up cheap, green energy when it’s abundant and ease off when the grid is stressed.
The best part? Our customers are already proving that flexibility pays.
How you're already helping to solve the problem
We’re building a system that rewards people for shifting their usage and the results speak for themselves:
Free electricity: When it’s super windy and wholesale prices plummet, our Saving Session Power ups let customers use green electrons for free. So far, this has saved customers an incredible £4.6 million.
Switching off: Saving Sessions also pay people to Power down when the grid is stressed. We’ve paid out £5.8 million to absolute heroes who have cut down their energy consumption during peak times.
The Fan Clubs: Customers living near our Fan Club turbines get discounted electricity when the wind blows locally. They typically save hundreds of pounds a year and more than 36,000 Brits have expressed interest in joining the tariff when it reaches their area (want to join them? Sign up here). We have four Fan Clubs so far across the UK and another one in the way in north Cornwall.
Smart tariffs: Cutting-edge options such as Intelligent Octopus Go and Agile Octopus enable customers to benefit from using power at lower demand — and some of them even set the schedule themselves so customers don’t have to lift a finger.
Harnessing the UK’s incredible wind power shouldn't be a headache for the grid: it should be a massive win for everyone's bills.
By letting smart tech shift how and when we use our power, we can stop throwing away our best natural resource, shrink our carbon footprint and drive down costs across the board.
Published on 1st May 2026 by:
Nicki Slater-Arnold
Writer