British Gas and Octopus paying households to unplug washing machine for hours | Personal Finance | Finance

British Gas and Octopus Energy are among the energy firms paying households to unplug their washing machines, as well as other key appliances, at certain times and shift usage off-peak instead.

The UK’s Demand Flexibility Service encourages households to use energy at off-peak or less popular times of day in order to manage demand on network infrastructure.

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has paid out a collective £777,800 to households between the middle of April and July 14 in order to cut their peak-time usage, according to a report by the FT. Octopus Energy and British Gas are two of the key suppliers taking part in the scheme, with others listed on the NESO website.

To take part in the scheme, households need to sign up through their energy firm.

Once registered, you will be told when a DFS event is taking place – not a cheap sofa sale, but the next chance to change how you run your home appliances and get rewarded for using less energy at a certain date and time.

Notice is usually given about 24 hours before and the high usage peak times are usually for one to four-hour periods in the evenings.

To receive rewards in these periods, you will need to cut your energy usage significantly.

The best way to do this, The Energy Saving Trust says, is to delay when you use power hungry appliances like washing machines, tumble dryers, ovens, dishwashers and others and stop running them in the key hours at all.

Octopus Energy allows households to earn points that they can then use to redeem as bill credits.

Others offer free or cheaper electricity as reward for cutting usage during the peak.

The Energy Saving Trust says: “The service uses several energy saving ‘events’ throughout the year. If you’ve registered to take part, your energy supplier will let you know when there’s an upcoming event. You’ll get a notification telling you the date and time of each event – this might be on the same day or the day before.

“Each event usually lasts for around an hour in the evenings when demand for electricity is at its peak.  If you sign up, you’ll be asked to use less electricity during each event.

“To thank you for taking part, energy suppliers offer their customers rewards. These include pounds or points that you can use towards paying for your energy bills. Rewards vary depending on your supplier, but the more electricity you save during each event the greater your rewards will be. ”