As Ukraine and Iran wars mark the end of cheap oil and gas, Scotland transfers a record 21TWh of electricity in 2025, the highest ever and nearly 300TWh in total since 2000, to England, for no significant return

From Energy Statistics for Scotland – Q4 2025 published today:

Electricity transfers data show that Scotland exported 21.7 TWh of electricity and imported 0.9 TWh of electricity in 2025. This means that Scotland’s net exports of electricity (exports minus imports) in 2025 were 20.8 TWh.

Scotland’s net electricity exports in 2025 had an indicative value of £1.7 billion based on the average wholesale day-ahead contracts price trend for 2025

https://www.gov.scot/publications/energy-statistics-for-scotland-q4-2025/pages/electricity-exports/

Looking back over the quarter century of electricity generated in Scotland then transferred to England to raise revenue the UK Treasury and the owners, none based in Scotland, the figures are huge.

I take it the 2025 net transfer figure in the table above has now been confirmed, in the first part above, at 20.8TWh, the highest ever.

From Imports, exports and transfers of electricity published today, the above and:

Net transfers from Scotland to England have been on an upward trend over the last decade.  Net transfers from Scotland totalled 18.5 TWh in 2025, up 7.7 per cent on 2024 and the third highest value on the published data series. Transfers from Scotland rose 6.0 per cent to 19.3 TWh while transfers to Scotland fell to 0.8 TWh. The increase reflects higher generation capacity in Scotland, particularly for wind generation, which leads to higher transfers to England and Wales in windy periods.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/electricity-section-5-energy-trends 

The indicative value of the 2025 transfers was worth £1.7bn according to the first graph above, it seems. Consequently, the 25 year transfers, at today’s prices was worth around £22.5bn.


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