National Grid is poised to pay households to cut their power demand tomorrow to avert power cuts as it prepares to activate its winter emergency electricity plan for the first time.
Its electricity system operator has warned the market it may need to use its new "demand flexibility service", a contingency scheme aimed at reducing household consumption when supply is tight.
It raises the prospect of households being asked to turn off their televisions when England face Wales in their crucial final World Cup group game on Tuesday night.
Low temperatures and outages on France's nuclear power fleet are set to put pressure on power supplies, according to market experts Enappsys.
Under the DFS scheme, National Grid will pay households to cut power demand by, for example, stopping running the washing machine or dishwasher until the supply crunch has eased.
Households which have signed up to the programme in advance will get a message asking them to turn off appliances at a certain time in exchange for £3 per kilowatt-hour saved. If the £3 is fully passed on by the suppliers to customers, that implies payments of up to £20 for each day when requested by National Grid.
National Grid has narrowly avoided activating its emergency blackout plan for the first time this winter as low wind speeds and nuclear outages push supply closer to the danger zone.
www.telegraph.co.uk
20 quid a day to sit in the dark isnt bad tho I suppose.
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