Possible Power Cuts Ahead- How Can The Country Save Power ?

[LuluBlakey1]

We are now, after months of being told by the government that we won't have power shortages, being told we are likely to face rotas across the country of 3 hour power cuts during the winter.

Are there things we can do, nationally and as households, to save power?
I have a couple of ideas- but not much understanding of what really has most impact:

1. Across the country turn off street lights between 1am and 6am every night.
2. All municipal buildings/city and town centre buildings and shops to turn out all lights from midnight to 6 am.
3. Close down railway lines between midnight and 5 am across the country.

I am not including hospitals/medical/care facilities or other necessary night facilities in any of that.

These are my thoughts also! I definitely think they are drip-feeding their intentions to soften people up, so it won't be so much of a surprise and there will be no pesky riots.

They aren't drip feeding people to soften them up.

They are giving people information so they can prepare.

I don't think there is any need to go full on prepper mode. But it's worth while doing some basic steps to make sure that if the power went off overnight you would be prepared - like making sure you have a torch, some food that you can eat without needing power and some spare batteries/candles and some warm blankets.

I have some electrical equipment that I prefer not to turn off, so I have a UPS for that. Advance warning of power cuts allows me to decide if I want to upgrade/extend that.

Possibly relevant, I've had a letter this morning (direct from the national grid, not from my supplier) about updating/confirming my priority details

Probably too late now but would be worth considering if this situation continues.

Or - put the clocks forward earlier next year. I think we do need to put them back to avoid it being too dark in the mornings, but have no idea why we have to wait until the end of March to put them forward again, why not the first Sunday in March? I think it would be a reasonable compromise.

Smart time of use tariffs would help enormously.

They were supposed to be a benefit of smart meters but there has been no incentive for the energy companies to offer new and innovative products.

Many people would be happy to use certain appliances at off peak times or while wind and solar are generating well if it offered a decent saving. Plus there are electric vehicles, storage heaters and immersion heaters that could be used more flexibly to spread the load if the tariffs were offered.

I would add an element of surge pricing, to discourage high usage at problematic times (not too high, a couple of pence higher, enough to get people to put off their shower or use the oven/dryer/washing machine earlier or later.

I think some really good schemes to help people install solar and make the best use of it would be sensible too.

Re putting on dishwasher/washing machine late at night/overnight.

This only works depending on where you live etc.

I used to live in a shared house where one person always put on washing at midnight and it was a noisy washing machine. Have also lived next door to people who either had utility rooms close to bedrooms or noisy washing machines, liked to put them on overnight too. I know people say 'you can put on machines when you like' - dishwashers are different as quieter but a washing machine, especially on a long cycle can be really grating if you're trying to get to sleep!