Residents in the United Kingdom can make money by turning off lights, unplugging computers, and heating dinner in the microwave rather than in an electric oven for the rest of the winter. After all these, they will receive monetary rewards.
The United Kingdom’s electricity system operator, National Grid, is currently working with other energy-providing companies, to establish a payment mechanism for customers who use less electricity during specific “saving sessions”.
These sessions will fall during the peak electricity demand timings (the mornings and evenings) when people get ready for or get home from school and work, watch television, turn on lights and electric heaters, and cook. For example, one such saving session fell between 4.30 and 6 o’clock on January 24, 2023.
As per the Guardian, the scheme is only open to businesses and households with a smart meter whose supplier or aggregator is one of the 26 firms to have signed up. More than one million households and businesses have signed up to participate and most suppliers have closed the scheme to new participants.
EDF Energy, E.ON, and British Gas are some of the energy companies that have participated in this initiative. Payments will only be made to clients who have accepted an invitation from one of these suppliers and have opted in. Additionally, only residences with smart metres will qualify for this initiative. Depending on the household’s average energy use, payments might reach up to £4 (USD 10) per kilowatt-hour of energy saved.
Therefore, customers are likely to receive a lower bill or credit on their account if they try to use less electricity than they often do at that time, say for example, by avoiding using energy-intensive washing machines.
Efforts Made By The United Kingdom’s National Grid To Conserve Energy
In February 2022, National Grid tested the programme with Octopus Energy. In November 2022. It implemented a “Demand Flexibility Service” that would allow a list of providers to offer incentives to their consumers to reduce their electricity consumption. The way the providers do this is up to them; they may highlight the financial advantages or mention that lowering peak demand may be advantageous for the environment.
Financial incentives were shown to be the most successful strategy to decrease consumers’ energy use, according to a 2021 analysis of a comparative trial in California. Demand response programmes are used in various ways by the United States and Europe. United Kingdom customers have long been able to shift part of their usage because energy is less expensive off-peak. One example is setting the dishwasher to run in the middle of the night. Customers can now participate even more actively thanks to the implementation of smart metres.
Through the smart meter, energy firms will monitor household usage after every 30 minutes. Companies will give households 24 hours’ notice that a “saving session” is upcoming, and it will require customers to reduce their consumption by at least 30%. The greater the reduction, the greater the discount, which will be automatically applied to the bill.
Consumers are likely to use various methods to save power during the period, including making sure none of their devices are charging, or pushing back meal times. A household’s power use will be compared with their normal usage for that time of day.
In 2022, Octopus Energy launched a similar scheme with about 100,000 of its customers. The initiative was designed to reduce the demand on the electricity network and engage consumers more actively with their energy use.
The United Kingdom’s 2023 programme is driven by two factors: money and achieving renewable energy targets. Like many other nations, the United Kingdom gets its electricity from several sources, including nuclear, wind, and gas-fired power plants. The government has been working to reduce its reliance on coal and other non-renewable energy sources. Still, because wind and solar energy are sporadic, National Grid must turn to “baseline” sources like coal plants to meet peak demand. In addition, customers’ energy bills have increased this winter for various reasons, including the rising gas cost due to the Ukraine conflict.
Additionally, reactivating idle coal plants is costly to increase the electricity supply. The alternative is a blackout, which would be extremely difficult, particularly during a harsh winter, apart from being politically damaging for the ruling Conservative dispensation. These concerns have given rise to the newest effort at a solution: lowering demand rather than raising supply.