British Gas is the latest major supplier to sign up to National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO)’s demand flexibility trials.
It joins Ovo and Shell Energy as recent participants to the scheme, which already counted Octopus and Eon within its ranks.
The Centrica-owned brand is launching a new scheme called Peak Save that will see customers paid for reducing their electricity at peak times.
It is targeting around 100,000 customers for the first phase of the trial, which will see households earning £4 per kilowatt hour, assuming they take part in 25 two-hour “turn down events” before the end of March 2023.
As well as setting a 30% reduction target per household, British Gas said it would provide tips and advice on how customers can achieve their target, such as which appliances they could switch off or shift.
Chris O ‘Shea, chief executive of Centrica, said: “The electricity grid is facing increased pressure and smart technology plays a key role in managing peak demand – reducing consumption has the added benefit of helping consumers save on their energy bills. We are exploring how to make this scheme work best for our customers so that it fits in with their habits around the home. This approach to help manage residential electricity demand is likely to become a major feature of the market in years to come. We’ll be taking learnings from this stage with the aim of using our scale to roll out to our wider customer base.
“We are committed to helping improve energy security in the UK and shifting demand is one part of that strategy. This year we have also reopened our Rough storage facility to store up to 30 billion cubic feet of gas for UK homes and businesses over this winter, boosting the UK’s energy resilience. In addition, our new gas supply agreement will see Equinor deliver to Centrica sufficient gas over the coming three winters to heat an additional 4.5 million homes.”
There are now 25 registered participants for the service, including Drax and Engie, with three pilots having been completed so far – the most recent on Wednesday (30 November) evening, with another set for today. The ESO has yet to reveal any data from these first pilots, however Octopus revealed that over 200,000 of its customers had taken part – reducing their energy demand by 108MW collectively.