UK Politics
Wind Fell to 2% and One Gas Plant Was Paid £1.4m an Hour, as Ministers Said Clean Power Would Cut Bills
Wind fell to 2% of Britain’s grid on Monday and one gas plant was paid the equivalent of £1.4m an hour, as ministers said clean power would cut bills.
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News | By Matt, Editor
On Monday afternoon the wind more or less stopped, and Britain paid through the nose for gas to keep the lights on. One plant, Langage Power Station near Plymouth, was paid the equivalent of £1.4 million an hour on Monday evening, according to market data reported by GB News.
At least three gas stations were paid about £1,500 a megawatt hour between 3.30pm and 5pm, up to ten times the normal rate. That was the same day the government’s own COP31 briefing told the public that using more clean energy “will also bring energy bills down”.
Key facts
- Wind made up about 28% of Britain’s electricity last Monday (2 November) and about 2% this Monday (9 November), according to grid generation data from Elexon. Gas supplied more than 60% on Monday.
- Langage Power Station in Devon received the equivalent of £1.4m an hour on Monday evening (GB News).
- At least three gas plants were paid £1,500 per megawatt hour between 3.30pm and 5pm, up to ten times the average (GB News).
- Grid operator NESO issued an Electricity Margin Notice for Monday morning, then withdrew it. It says there was “no risk to customer electricity supplies”.
- Seven margin notices have been issued so far this year, compared with one in 2025 (GB News).
- The cost of balancing the grid hit a record £553m in September alone, Ms Porter told GB News. Those costs end up on bills.
What happened on Monday
The grid has to match supply and demand second by second. When the wind drops away and the forecast is wrong, the system operator has to buy power at short notice from whoever can switch on, and the gas plants that can do it name a high price.
Have your sayTap to commentMonday was one of those days. Elexon’s generation figures show wind turbines supplied around 2% of the electricity on the national grid across the day, down from just over 28% the Monday before. Gas did the heavy lifting, at more than 60%. On the open balancing market the system price hit about £755 a megawatt hour in the half hour from 4.30pm (Elexon BMRS).
NESO had already put out an Electricity Margin Notice on Sunday evening, asking generators to make more capacity available for the Monday morning peak. Ms Porter, who runs the consultancy Watt-Logic, flagged a shortfall of 1,388MW in that notice. NESO later withdrew it.
NESO insists nobody was in danger of losing power. “This is not a warning of power cuts, there is no risk to customer electricity supplies, and customers do not need to take action – Great Britain’s electricity system remains secure,” it said, calling the notice a “routine and precautionary measure”. It also says there have been “comparable periods of EMN use in the past”.
Ms Porter isn’t reassured. “Electricity Margin Notices used to be rare events, normally associated with cold winter evenings when demand was exceptionally high,” she told GB News. “Now they are becoming more frequent and are no longer confined to winter.”
Who pays
You do. Balancing costs are passed through to suppliers and then onto household bills. “Consumers ultimately pay for this through electricity bills,” Ms Porter said. “The costs of balancing the grid have risen sharply, reaching a record £553million in September alone. Annual costs are now in the billions.”
In fairness to the wind industry, September’s record bill came from the opposite problem. NESO said there was so much wind the grid couldn’t carry it, so turbines were paid to switch off while gas plants were paid to fire up elsewhere. Too much wind costs money. Too little costs money. The household pays both ways.
And the lull isn’t over. From midnight to 2pm on Tuesday wind supplied under 7% of the grid and gas over 60%, and on Monday Ms Porter said the forecast showed “another few days before wind gets above 5 GW vs c34 GW installed”. Meanwhile the UK Health Security Agency has just issued its first cold-health alert of the winter, for the North West and West Midlands from Thursday to Saturday.
What the Energy Secretary says
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh told BBC Panorama, in an interview aired on Monday night, that “with the cost of living biting, affordability is my overriding objective, without a doubt”. She argued that the drive to clean power is “about decoupling our dependence on global fossil fuel markets”, and that homegrown renewables and nuclear will bring bills down “in the long term”.
She also said: “People want to blame net zero for that. Now, I don’t believe that’s the case.” And she admitted Labour’s target of 95% clean electricity by 2030 is a “stretch”. The BBC says ministers are bracing for a jump in prices in January expected to be the biggest rise in bills for four years.
The government says “oil and gas will continue to play an important role in our energy system for decades to come, alongside renewables, nuclear and other low-carbon technologies”, and that Britain will keep a reserve of gas-fired power stations during the switch to net zero.
The reaction
Shadow Energy Secretary Andrew Bowie pointed out the obvious contradiction. Labour is legislating to ban new North Sea exploration licences while gas carries the grid.
Reform’s Richard Tice went further, calling it a “NET ZERO NIGHTMARE” and saying NESO was paying “10 times normal price for gas fired electricity to cover up for failure of renewables to deliver”.
Even the gas network owners are making the point. James Earl, chief executive of the trade body Future Energy Networks, told GB News: “This past weekend has underscored the value of gas in delivering energy security. With low winds and little sun expected over the coming days, gas will continue to play an essential role in delivering flexible and dependable power.”
Our view
Nobody expects the wind to blow every day. The trouble is that ministers keep selling clean power as the thing that will cut your bill, and on a cold, still November afternoon the bill went the other way. The same government is shutting the door on new North Sea gas, has a bill that could open your HMRC records to energy firms, and is sending £350m of its £100 energy payment to the richest fifth. If affordability really is the “overriding objective”, the 2030 target should be the first thing on the table, not the last. Keep the gas plants, back the North Sea, and stop paying twice.
Should Labour scrap its 2030 clean power target? Vote in our poll below.
Sources
- The Telegraph, 9 November 2026: gas plants called on as wind slumped (report linked by Richard Tice with the £1,500/MWh and £1.4m an hour figures)
- GB News, 10 November 2026: £1,500/MWh, 3.30pm to 5pm, wind 28% to 2%, seven EMNs, £553m in September, NESO, Porter, Earl and Bowie quotes, government line
- GB News, 9 November 2026: gas share during the wind lull
- Elexon BMRS: generation by fuel type for 2 and 9 November and 10 November to 2pm; system price 9 November
- BBC News, 9 November 2026: Fahnbulleh Panorama interview, January bill rise
- GOV.UK, 9 November 2026: COP31 briefing, “will also bring energy bills down”
- UKHSA, 10 November 2026: first cold-health alert of winter 2026/27
Main image: Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh (pictured at 10 Downing Street, November 2025), Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street, OGL 3, with Langage Power Station, Devon, David Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Related
- ‘An Act of Economic Vandalism’: Labour’s ‘Energy Independence Bill’ Would Ban New North Sea Drilling
- Labour’s Energy Bill Could Open HMRC Records to Energy Firms, and ‘Those Most Able to Pay’ Would Foot the Bill
- £350m of Labour’s £100 Energy Payment Goes to the Richest Fifth While 700,000 of the Poorest Get Nothing
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