Wednesday September 23rd 2026
Crystal Rig wind farm
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Paul Kelly
A Scottish Borders environmental campaigner has expressed dismay after a new report revealed catastrophic failings from a ministerial department and a regulator had resulted in hikes to household energy bills.
The report from the National Audit Office (NAO) reveals that a “wildly inaccurate” Ofgem forecast that annual grid constraint costs would fall from £121.7 million in 2015 to zero by 2023-24.
In fact these costs increased fifteen times over to £1.9 billion in 2025-26.
Constraint costs are added to household energy bills, rather than being funded through public expenditure.
The lack of a clear plan for how to successfully manage the transmission network, and flawed assumptions made by the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ), National Energy System Operator (NESO) and Ofgem are highlighted throughout the report, which assesses value for money from government expenditure.
A series of scathing conclusions include that: “DESNZ has allowed renewable electricity generation to expand faster than the grid, which has led to increased constraint costs”.
John Williams, former chair of Heriot Community Council, described the errors as “staggering”.
He said: “A series of catastrophic errors have left consumers worse off while still not fixing any of the problems with our electricity network.
“In the Scottish Borders the problems are particularly acute as we are the region most affected by the onslaught of mass development.
“Whilst I was dealing with multiple wind farm applications and subsequent public inquiries over the last 20 years or so, we as a community raised time and again the lack of proper grid structure to take the generated energy from Scotland to the main urban areas of the UK.
“We were told every time that grid constraints were to be excluded from the planning process. To see an official acceptance of this as a catastrophic error after all these years is welcome – but also very revealing about the incompetence underlying planning policy over the last 20 years.
“The cost is not just higher energy bills but devastation of the natural landscape, a ruinous impact on wildlife and crippling the potential for sustainable tourism in the region.
“It is staggering that all these windfarm contracts were handed out to big energy firms, but nobody in government considered how the electricity network would cope.”
In the Scottish Borders, there are 53 windfarms either already in operation, under construction, or in the planning system.
If all developments were approved there would be 774 turbines in the region, with capacity to generate up to 1,909 MW of energy on windy days, equivalent to 38 per cent of Scotland’s entire energy demand.
NAO is calling for ‘greater transparency’ from DESNZ, Ofgem and NESO in future. In addition it recommends “delivering upgrades at lowest cost to consumers will require stronger oversight of delivery, transparent monitoring of progress, and sufficient regulatory capability to scrutinise costs and the operation of incentives”.
Mr Williams added: “The shambolic approach to energy generation in this country has led to the worst of all possible worlds – desecration of our beautiful countryside, massive over-supply, energy being discarded because it can’t be used and huge incentives for energy giants to keep targeting Scotland. This chaos has to stop.
“If the Westminster government cannot get a grip on energy policy, we call on the Holyrood government to use its planning powers to veto further development.”
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