Listen again · Commentary
When the power grid cannot move electricity where it is needed October 17, 2026 · 2:34 · With Omar
I’m Omar, the station’s economy and work columnist, with a chronicle about the cost of balancing Britain’s electricity grid.
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Omar Welcome to Slow English FM. I’m Omar, the station’s economy and work columnist, with a chronicle about the cost of balancing Britain’s electricity grid. Omar The Guardian reports that Great Britain’s grid operator paid £47.9 million on 14 October to switch off wind farms in areas with too much electricity and turn on gas plants in areas where supplies were tight. The newspaper says transmission bottlenecks made it difficult to move electricity around the country. The reported payment was for one day. It points to a problem that is not simply about how much electricity is being produced. It is also about whether power can reach the places where it is needed. When some areas have a surplus and others have tight supplies, the grid operator may need to reduce generation in one place and increase it elsewhere. Omar There is a striking contrast in the report: wind farms were switched off in some areas, while gas plants were turned on in others. The Guardian attributes the balancing costs to bottlenecks in transmission. In other words, the report describes a grid struggling to move available power between places. The Guardian also cites the consultancy LCP Delta for an estimate about the scale of the reduced output. It says wind farms and hydropower plants with about 9 gigawatts of capacity were paid not to generate on that day. A gigawatt is a measure of power capacity. This figure describes the capacity involved, not the amount of electricity those plants would have produced. Omar So the reported £47.9 million and the estimate of about 9 gigawatts describe two parts of the same balancing challenge: wind farms were told to generate less in some areas, while gas plants were turned on in others. The Guardian says the estimate came from LCP Delta. It links the costs to bottlenecks in moving electricity around the country. Omar Thanks for listening to Slow English FM. Stay with us for more news and stories in clear English to help you understand the world.
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