On Sunday 30th April, British Gas will be the first supplier to launch a new trial to manage demand as part of its PeakSave scheme. Over 150,000 customers on British Gas’ PeakSave scheme will be invited to take part in a one-off session between 11am and 4pm on Sunday 30th April, where they will benefit from half price electricity.
There is no obligation to make any changes to normal routine, although if customers are able to shift regular activities such as washing, cleaning, charging or cooking they could save on their energy bill. British Gas will reward customers by issuing a bill credit within 7 working days of participating in the session giving 50% off their tariff unit rate on all electricity consumption between 11am and 4pm. It is entirely free to take part in the PeakSave Sunday session and there is no impact on tariffs or normal energy payments. To take part in this session, eligible customers will be contacted by email and will need to opt-in through this.
The aim of the trial is to test whether discounts on a Sunday can encourage energy to shift away from peak weekday evenings to reduce emissions during those periods. British Gas will build on these learnings to support the net zero transition by encouraging shifts to greener periods.
British Gas will be running a number of trials to build on the success of PeakSave and is taking registrations for customers who wish to sign up. Anyone wishing to register to take part in PeakSave can sign up here – https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/peak-save/registration.html
A British Gas spokesperson said: “Over 200,000 customers signed up to the first PeakSave trial, providing us with invaluable insights on how we can manage consumption to support a greener grid, while also helping our customers to make significant savings. Following the success of the scheme this winter, we are now the first supplier looking at other ways we can help manage demand. We will be contacting customers to let them know they have the option to get half price electricity from 11am to 4pm this Sunday and will soon be taking registrations to sign up more customers to upcoming trials.”
About PeakSave:
British Gas ran a trial energy reduction scheme for this winter called ‘PeakSave’ that took part in the National Grid ESO service trials. The trial tested the potential for reducing demand on the grid whilst helping customers save on bills by asking households to reduce their usage during National Grid’s ‘turn-down’ events. The initial scheme trial ran between 1st December 2022 and 31st March 2023 and now British Gas is launching new products to test the potential to save on bills and shift demand.
In the original trial, British Gas revealed its customers received a combined total of more than £1.8 million and saved 147 MWh of energy – enough to power 750,000 homes for an hour. The savings to date equate to an average of £28.56 per customer – with the top 2 per cent saving £53 and the biggest saver making £332.
