The Big Power Off. Anyone doing it

[florentina1]

We are currently sitting in the dark with just our iPads. Is any one else joining in the Power Off. Also does anyone understand how the payments are calculated.?

I would but am with Shell so not offered.

If the National Grid did courtesy alerts ie. ‘with the cold snap and to secure supply it’d be great if you could think about using less between X and Y times’ then I totally would - without getting paid.

The public are v sensible and compliant in the main. Instead of it being this media drama like a few months ago threatening blackouts, just give people a heads up. We’re all capable of deciding what’s essential for us and what’s not. Those who can be flexible often will be.

It seems to be invite only, rather similar to the Next sale

This is the reason why grid.iamkate.com/

its cold, we have no gas storage to make extra electricity, there’s a war affecting global supply of gas (which is used to make electricity) we are currently using more as a country than we are able to produce.

see the website

That was a trial to see whether it made any real difference and whether people would bother to comply. This is now the real deal. We need this to prevent loss of power.

I did although I was not one of the Chosen Few to benefit from the scheme. It made no odds to me to switch everything off for an hour so if it helped a bit then all good.

I have been thinking about why they would do this, and my cynical (and perhaps repetitive) view is that they are testing their software for variable pricing.
I suspect that at some point they will start to 'penalise' use at peak times by increasing the price rather than offering a discount for non-use.

If you’re interested then it might be worth going onto your providers website. I read about it, logged on to the British Gas website to read about their scheme and then about two hours later got an email invitation. Might be pure coincidence but might be tracked and deliberately targeting those who show an interest (which makes absolute sense if they want to maximise participation).

it’s happening again tonight.

For British Gas you have to have a smart meter so they can see what you’ve used and it has to be set to send readings at least every half hour.

Meh if it was really an issue they would be doing more with the existing time of use tariffs rather than putting the cost of off peak up.

I don't think it is an issue, if it was it wouldn't be invite only, they would want as many people as possible to do it, I think it is like a survey for different pricing in the future so they just need a certain amount of people to participate. Also to get more people wanting Smart meters because of FOMO. It also gets people to send in half hourly meter readings, I am feeling quite cynical about this.

That simply isn't the case. It's led by lack of supply. Why on earth would British Gas pay me double the rate to not use their product than the rate they sell their product to me. That's just paranoid nonsense.

We don't have enough gas stored to enable us to deal with times of very high demand They know when those times are. They are trying to reduce demand during those peak hours. Its national grid led not energy company led.

If it's lack of supply why is it not open to everyone with a smart meter.

Have a smart metre but have never been invited. We are fairly low users anyway, so doubt they'd want us to sign up.

I am a bit dubious of some of the motivations behind these energy-saving drives. SSE offered me a free smart meter (the meter that goes in the cupboard under the stairs, not the one that flashes red when you boil a kettle). When I was told the cost of installation, I decided against it.

Because they're trying to cut demand by a particular amount to balance it with supply. Funnily enough the electricity companies don't want everyone switching off since they are profit making organisations.

Torchlighting in this case.

We are on economy 7 I think so would not be eligible anyway, I say I think because I am not sure as BG may have taken us off it, I cannot see anything about my account on the website so don't know apart from some estimated readings, they are also uncontactable to speak to about it. I am also probably on the naughty step with BG as I cancelled my gas smart meter because I didn't want it to be the same state as the electric.

If everyone turned off at 5-6pm everyone would suddenly turn off at 6pm it wouldn’t help but if say 40% of people don’t now cook dinner between 5-6 but between 6-7 it’s moved the power usage.

I have a smart meter and would have done it but my company is not taking part yet which is annoying. I read that you have to be invited to take part by your company and then you must register to take part.

Although to be honest I don't know how I could cut the consumption by any more than I am already.

I bet less than 40% are eligible anyway as you can't do it on prepay, economy 7 or a dumb meter so surely everyone else could with a suitable meter so why the invites

The pessimist in me says to catch people out so they don’t have to pay. Just look on here a couple of people where taking part not knowing they wouldn’t get any reward and others have taken part even with an invite thinking they would earn much more than they did.

As long as the energy use is shifted slightly though so we can keep the power on its good.

It has a real Big Brother feel to it.

I will not be getting a smart meter (thanks for telling me that you are in the area at least one hundred times).

I did an EDF one just before Christmas. We made a point of not using the oven, dishwasher or washing machine for the hour but did still have Christmas lights (we have a LOT of Christmas lights inside and out), DS was gaming on his powerful OC with two monitors, stereo on etc. We saved 0.38 kwh and got just over £1.36! I’ll be interested to see what we get for yesterday as there are no Christmas lights at this time of year…. We are considered low users already though……

Haven't heard anything about it from my provider. I use very little electricity. Can't afford to run the heaters as my flat was 9 degrees last night and this morning. Not sure what else I can turn off!

Ive just had another email from British Gas saying that we are now getting set up and they will email us with the date of the next session as soon as we are fully set up. In the meantime however we get paid even for not participating (in the period between us signing up and being properly set up on their system). We get a payment equivalent to the average saving of BG customers.