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Ofgem said on Tuesday (28 May) the operator of the 588MW Beatrice offshore wind farm off Moray Firth in Scotland had admitted to breaking energy regulations by overcharging for curtailment fees and had agreed to pay £33.14 million in response.
The operator is Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited or BOWL, a joint venture between the wind farm's owners – UK developer SSE Renewables (40%), Chinese investment firm SDIC Group’s Red Rock Power (25%), UK investor Equitix (17.5%) and the Renewables Infrastructure Group (17.5%).
Ofgem said the operator admitted to “charging excessive prices to reduce its generation output when this was required to keep the electricity grid balanced, thereby pushing up costs for consumers”.
Under the contract for difference (CfD) terms wind farms have been awarded under, operators can be paid to curtail generation at certain times to avoid losing money when the excess power they generate cannot be used.
However, in this instance Ofgem said the operator was paid excessively for its curtailment.
“BOWL’s prices did not properly reflect the financial benefits of reducing its output related to avoided payments that the company would otherwise have been required to make under the government’s contracts for dfference scheme,” the regulator said.
It added that the operator had cooperated fully with its investigation into the matter and had “committed to making changes to its bid pricing policy to avoid any future breaches”.
The Beatrice case echoed Ofgem charging French utility EDF £5.53 million (€6.45 million) after its operating company breached curtailment rules at the 177MW Dorenell onshore wind farm in Scotland.
BOWL claimed that the excessive charges it made for curtailing energy at Beatrice were unintentional.
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