BRUCE McIntosh ("Wind power may be responsible for £200m of constraint payments", Letters, May 1) is wrong to suggest that payments to electricity generators to switch off are due to increases and decreases in wind power output.
This is evidenced by the fact that gas, coal and hydro power generators received these payments long before the large-scale deployment of wind farms, and continue to receive payments several multiples of the total amount paid to wind farms.
These payments are made to generators who are forced to reduce power output or switch off completely because National Grid cannot meet its contractual obligation to transport electricity generated- which generators pay annual fees for - due to constraints or bottlenecks on the grid. National Grid must then purchase power from generators in other parts of the country to balance supply and demand and ensure the lights stay on.
The payments are not driven by changes in power output from wind farms due to wind conditions. The way to reduce the overall levels of payments is to do what National Grid, SSE and ScottishPower are doing - construct new power lines and upgrade existing ones to remove pinch points on the grid and transport greater amounts of clean, renewable power from where it is generated to where it will be consumed.
Jenny Hogan,
Director of Policy, Scottish Renewables, Tara House,
46 Bath Street, Glasgow.
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