Energy suppliers have signed up to an innovative new scheme that will pay customers not to use electricity and help avoid blackouts this winter, the boss of National Grid has said.
John Pettigrew, the company's chief executive, said that "a vast majority of suppliers in the UK have now signed up," to the scheme, which launched last week.
The programme is designed to encourage customers to switch the time that they use electricity to off-peak hours during some days when supply is tight. It will mean less stress on the grid, making better use of the country's electricity generation by ironing out some of the peaks, National Grid hopes.
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Most customers use electricity at similar times, with a particularly big spike in the evening when people get back from work, start cooking and switch the TV on.
Mr Pettigrew said: "We're really pleased with the take-up. It will continue to grow as we move through the winter." National Grid runs the project, but relies on suppliers to sign up so their customers can take part.
So far only one major supplier of energy to homes - Octopus Energy - is thought to have started to sign up customers to the scheme. Ovo Energy and Eon have launched their own similar initiatives that are not actually linked to the National Grid one, while British Gas has said it intends to sign up, but has not yet confirmed the details.
Mr Pettigrew said that the programme could help take pressure off the grid this winter, but also holds the key to how electricity might be used by homes in the decades ahead. In future, experts hope that most households with electric cars will plug in when they get home, but that their smart meter will wait until electricity is most abundant - and therefore cheaper - on the grid before charging the car.
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