The level of windpower in Scotland briefly exceeded the demand requirements in the region at the end of August. This is the first time such an event has occurred in Scotland, and highlights the scale the technology has grown in the last few years. However, much more work needs to be done to meet renewable energy targets. There also remain concerns over the reliability of the technology; the excess was seen for just one hour period in the morning. The UK as a whole needs additional baseload power over the next few decades to meet a potential shortfall in supply.
Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has announced that output from the windfarms in its distribution area in the north of Scotland surpassed 700 MW on 29 August 2010. This meant that it briefly met and exceeded the demand load at that moment. The additional power was filtered to the rest of the UK. The SSE Power Distribution (SSEPD) zone includes Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness, and the milestone was reached at a generally low demand period – between 8 and 9 am on a Sunday.
Alan Broadbent, head of engineering at SSEPD, stated, "[The] milestone demonstrates that wind farms can produce substantial amounts of energy, as part of a diverse mix, and that electricity networks can accommodate it."