Electricity generator Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL) has been struck with a £33.14 million fine from the UK energy regulator Ofgem after admitting it had breached one of its licence conditions.
While BOWL did accept that it had breached the conditions by charging excessive prices, it maintains that this was an unintentional breach and told Ofgem that it considered itself compliant when submitting the bid requests. According to Ofgem, BOWL was fully cooperative and aided the regulator in “resolving the issue quickly and fairly.”
BOWL operates the 84-turbine Beatrice Offshore Windfarm, located around 13.5km off the north-east coast of Scotland. The farm is capable of generating 588MW of electricity, making it the second-largest operational offshore wind farm in Scotland.
Keeping wind farms in check
This is not the first time this year that Ofgem has fined a Scottish wind farm for breaching its licence conditions.
In March, the regulator fined Dorenell Windfarm, which operates a 59-turbine onshore wind farm with a capacity of 59.3MW, £5.53 million for a similar licence breach. Speaking at the time, Cathryn Scott, director of enforcement for Ofgem, said she hoped the fine “sends a clear message that licence breaches will simply not be tolerated.”
Other energy businesses have been the subject of Ofgem investigations in recent times. Non-domestic energy supplier Farringdon Energy is currently under investigation, with Ofgem seeking to determine if the company is in “compliance with rules around treating microbusinesses fairly and their operational capability”.
Ofgem fines and reparation payments have been on the rise. In 2023, Ofgem recovered a total of £77.2 million in fines, customer refunds, compensation, and alternative action payments, a rise of over £50 million from the previous year. EP SHB, SSE Generation and Drax Pumped Storage were among the firms fined in 2023.
