Customers with renewable energy company ScottishPower saved enough power in the past two months to watch the Christmas movie, Elf around 50,000 times over, the firm revealed today.
Around 30,000 people have signed up to its ‘Power Saver’ initiative. This sees push notifications on mobile phones ask them to use less electricity for around 1-3 hours at peak times – Part of the electricity system operator (ESO) for Great Britain’s Demand Flexibility Service (DFS).
During seven national DFS events, running across November and December, around 70% of those signed up took part. This saw a total turndown saving of 24 megawatt hours (MWh) – enough power to watch the favourite festive film 50,000 times.
Rob McGaughey, ScottishPower’s Head of Smart Heat and Cities said: “Our customers know that the best way to save festive power is to turn down appliances for at least an hour.
“By managing their energy consumption, they reduce their electricity costs while earning rewards like gift cards through our Power Saver scheme. This not only translates to financial savings, but also crucially contributes to the more efficient use of energy resources – better for the grid and, ultimately, better for the planet.”
Demand flexibility services are being trialled to adjust power consumption at some of the busiest periods of the day. When millions of households are using energy at the same time, the UK is often forced to turn to coal and gas stations to meet this additional energy need.
By using less energy at peak times (or shifting usage to other periods of the day), customers can help ease pressure on the energy network, meaning that the need for energy from fossil fuel sources can be lessened.
This can involve simple actions such as turning off or avoiding the use of appliances for set periods, ranging from washing machines and ovens to electric showers, temporarily pausing electric vehicle (EV) charging.
Timing energy use in this way can also make the best use of available renewable power and keep the grid balanced.
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