Households and businesses across the UK are preparing to cook their meal outside 4.30pm – 6pm today to save on their bills and boost the grid’s flexibility.

The second electricity switch-off follows the first live rollout of the National Grid’s Demand Flexibility Service (DFS), a scheme which aims to pay customers to reduce their energy use at given times.

It is estimated that last night’s use of the DFS, between 5pm and 6pm, saved nearly 1GW of energy.

Amelie T. told ELN: “It’s been great to have the opportunity to take part in trialling the future of energy at home and motivating to know we are helping stop the use of coal.

“My 3-year-old doesn’t mind using the tablet for her shows or playing games by candlelight, but the longer sessions can make planning dinner tricky.”

Amelie said she used, pre-charged devices and lights when the DFS was live.

Sarah Merrick told ELN: “It was fun for the family to see just how low they could get our consumption. There was a real sense of collective action, which everyone got behind.”

Jo-Jo Hubbard, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Electron, said: “It’s great to see signals going out and consumers adjusting energy consumption.

“National initiatives like this are a great step forwards on our path to net zero, but we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible. By moving to a local approach for flexibility, we can start incentivising customers to adjust their consumption based not just on when they use it, but where – and getting paid real value for it.

“By doing this, we can start making much more efficient use of our grid and stop relying as heavily on peaking, polluting generators.”