Greg Jackson, Chief Executive Officer of Octopus Energy, has called for an end to payments made to wind farms to stop generating electricity.
Mr Jackson argued that locational pricing could be a nationwide solution, not just a fix for isolated areas.
He wrote on X, former Twitter: “Locational pricing – not just a workaround for islands, but a solution for the whole nation.
“Stop paying generators to turn off zero marginal cost power, and instead sell it locally cheaply.
“Locational pricing means we’d build what we need where we need it and cut bills for everyone.”
Mr Jackson’s comments come in response to recent criticism from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who condemned the practice of wind farm operators receiving constraint payments.
This criticism followed Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael’s speech in the House of Commons that SSE, the operator of the Viking Energy wind farm in Shetland, had received over £2 million in August for not generating electricity.
Mr Carmichael highlighted the issue of high fuel poverty in communities hosting renewable energy projects and urged the Prime Minister to consider an “islands tariff” to better benefit these areas.
Alistair Carmichael said: “Is there not something badly wrong with an energy market that pays big corporates not to produce electricity, while the people living amongst the turbines endure some of the highest levels of fuel poverty in the country?”
Prime Minister said: “That is not acceptable, for the reasons set out in his question. It is a problem that was not fixed over the last 14 years, but a problem we are determined to fix as we go forward.
“I will make sure that a relevant Minister speaks to him about the particular issue in his constituency.”
