British Gas is offering some customers half-price electricity on Sundays throughout the summer following a one-off trial earlier this year.
The PeakSave scheme will run from tomorrow (June 25) to September 24, and. British Gas says a typical household could save up to £29.25 over the course of the summer, depending on how much electricity they use. The discount will only be available to the 200,000 British Gas customers with smart meters who have signed up to its PeakSave scheme.
Around 150,000 British Gas customers were the first in the UK to trial the half-price electricity scheme in April, which monitored whether the incentive of cheaper energy was enough to make families rethink their habits and switch their peak use away from weekday evenings.
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The trial followed the industry-wide National Grid demand flexibility service trials late last year as part of National Grid ESO's Demand Flexibility Service, which aimed to reduce energy demand during peak times by offering customers rewards for shifting their usage. Other energy companies such as Octopus and Ovo Energy also took part in the scheme, which tested the potential for reducing demand on the grid by asking households to reduce their usage during National Grid’s ‘turn-down’ events in return for a rebate on their energy bill.
And British Gas, which is the UK's largest energy supplier with 10 million domestic customers, is the first to expand its scheme by introducing a new 'Summer Sundays' discount. You'll get 50% off each unit of electricity you use between 11am and 4pm on Sundays, so it will pay to try to organise your peak use between those hours. For example, one hour of using a washing machine on each of the 14 Sundays throughout the scheme could save you £4.52 in total, while two hours of using an electric oven on each of those Sundays could save you £8.90 in total, according to Money Saving Expert.
A announcement on the British Gas website reads: "Any electricity you use is half price, so it’s worth waiting until the event to put those big appliances to work. That might mean using the five hours to catch up on the week’s washing or ironing. Or you may want to cook a Sunday roast with all the trimmings at lunch instead of dinnertime. Then you can put the dishwasher on a little earlier than usual, too. Even if you just feel like putting your feet up, any electricity you use to watch TV, keep the fridge cool and charge your phone – it’s still half price."
You don't need to join each event individually and you'll get the discount automatically as long as you're part of PeakSave, although British Gas says it'll send you a text to remind you before each event. If you're not already part of PeakSave, you can register your interest to join – though there's no guarantee you'll be enrolled straight away, as British Gas said there may be a "short set up period" for those with smart meters, while those without a smart meter will need to have one installed first.
In the original winter trial, British Gas customers received a combined total of more than £1.8m 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 two per cent saving £53 and the biggest saver making £332.
You'll be billed for the electricity you use as normal, and British Gas will then credit your account back with half of what you spent within two weeks of each event. The discount will be taken off your unit rate only – the standing charge will not be discounted. It's also worth noting you'll only get the discount on the first 60 units (kWh) of electricity you use – any usage above this will be charged at your standard rate, although this is more than most households use.
