Plan to use wind power at night

National Grid says this could save the company millions of pounds in constraint payments made to wind producers to shut down their farms at times of low demand, especially at night. 

These constraint payments are expected to rise to £27.9 million for 2013/14 compared to the £7.6 million paid out in the period before. 

"Managing increasing intermittency on the electricity system poses one of the biggest challenges to the decarbonisation of the electricity sector, and it is encouraging to hear that National Grid is exploring all available options," says energy expert, Chris McGarvey of Pinsent Masons. 

"Whilst it is very unlikely that there is sufficient elasticity in electricity demand to fully absorb the excess volumes generated during these periods, it could play a meaningful role alongside other longer term initiatives such as pumped storage, recharging of electric vehicles and ultimately more novel forms of energy storage such as compressed air and hydrogen fuel cells," he said.