U.K. wind farm companies were being paid thousands of dollars not to produce electricity when the wind is blowing, according to a report in British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph.
London-based utilities company National Grid, which operates England's and Wales' electricity transmission network, feared that nighttime winds could cause an electricity supply surge which would not be met by household and business demand, the newspaper reported.
As electricity cannot be stored in large quantities, the power produced by wind turbines must be reduced to re-balance the system.
In the first successful test shutdown last month, Scottish Power, the U.K. arm of Spain's Iberdrola received £13,000 ($19,300) for stopping two farms for just over an hour at about 5am local time on May 30, the newspaper reported.
