How Octopus Energy is Calling Out UK Wind Power Waste

Octopus Energy is exposing one of the UK’s biggest energy problems: the cost of wasted wind power. 

With its new real-time visual tool, the ‘Wasted Wind Ticker’, the company puts a price tag on energy the public never uses but still pays for—more than £650m (US$884.5m) so far in 2025. That’s money paid out to wind farms for switching off, while gas plants take their place on the grid.

The figure is more than 50% higher than at the same time last year, a clear sign that the UK's energy infrastructure is not keeping up with its growing supply of clean electricity. 

The technology to generate renewable energy is in place, but the system to use it efficiently is still missing.

Where the power goes—and where it doesn’t

At the root of the problem is the UK national grid’s outdated design. Most of the UK’s wind energy comes from remote areas, especially in Scotland, but the electricity has to travel to population centres far removed from them. With limited transmission capacity, the grid cannot carry all the electricity being produced.

Instead of flowing to homes and businesses, clean wind energy is curtailed, or shut off. 

Wind farms like Seagreen—the UK’s largest—are paid to not generate power. According to reports, it happens 71% of the time the turbines could be spinning. These constraint payments are built into the system, but they distort the economics of wind energy. 

The result is that the real cost of wind power can be up to four times higher than it should be.

Gas-powered fossil fuel stations, which are easier to control but far less sustainable, step in to fill the gap. This keeps emissions high and raises eyebrows when consumers see their bills climb, despite assurances that renewable energy is the cheaper option.

Fixing the system from the inside

Octopus Energy is not just criticising the status quo—it’s offering a fix. 

Its main proposal is zonal pricing, where electricity prices vary by region based on supply and demand. It’s a model already in use across much of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Octopus Energy says it would help the UK make smarter infrastructure choices.

“Britain needs more infrastructure – but investments must be smart and efficient otherwise they’re not investments, they’re waste,” says Greg Jackson, Founder of Octopus Energy Group.

Greg argues that zonal pricing could reduce the need for “tens of thousands of pylons” and save as much as £27bn (US$36.75bn) in network expansion costs. It would also, he says, make the energy market more competitive and transparent.

“We shouldn’t let a handful of highly profitable giants, with the most powerful lobbyists, block these efficiencies and keep an increasingly expensive, broken system in place,” insists Greg.

“Zonal pricing is not difficult – it’s the proven way to keep costs down and is the norm across much of the OECD. The longer the UK stays an outlier, the more British citizens will pay the price and the less competitive our industry will be.”

The UK Government decided to abandon its zonal energy pricing plan on 10 July 2025. 

Tracking costs to regain trust

Transparency is a key part of Octopus’ campaign. With 12 million people visiting its website every month, the company wants the public to see exactly where their money goes. 

The live Wasted Wind Ticker will soon appear in 7.5 million monthly bills and on the app used by half a million customers each day.

"It’s crazy to build wind farms where there’s no grid, then pay them to sit idle and then pay the most expensive fossil fuel plants to generate the power instead,” says Pete Miller, Co-Founder and Head of Customer Experience at Octopus.

That message is part of a wider push to help consumers understand why their bills remain high. 

As Pete explains: “Octopus was clear with customers that the energy crisis was caused by the cost of gas, and now we need to be clear that high electricity prices are the cost of a broken energy system.”

With constraint costs expected to reach £8bn a year by 2030, Octopus Energy’s focus on accountability aims to shift the conversation around energy from confusion to clarity. The company says its campaign is just the beginning, with further plans to publish detailed breakdowns of costs and how customer payments are used.