Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of wind and solar generation was curtailed in each of the past three years, and what the estimated cost of this curtailment was to taxpayers and bill-payers.

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) is responsible for operating Great Britain’s electricity system and managing constraints. Constraint payments are part of Balancing Use of System charges and NESO publishes total balancing costs, which are paid for by energy users and totalled £1.7bn in 2024. Published costs are not split between different types of generators.

Constraints are a natural part of operating an efficient electricity system and constraint payments are used around the world. However, Government is working to reduce constraints and improve energy security by accelerating the building of new electricity network infrastructure to increase capacity on the system.