Free energy

Crakayl

My energy company EDF gives me an option to get free electricity by using there Sunday saver option on there website which is great this week I have 8 hours free electricity, anyone who have electric heating would benefit largely from this ie pensioners , people on low incomes etc. Why will they not include gas customers as this seems unfair to many households.

northernstar007

spare electric on the network (green days because of wind/solar), theres no excess gas 
just out of curious how much are you paying on your tariff

Ayr_Rage

I am also participating in the EDF Sunday Saver, SW Scotland, Essentials April 2025, 21.99p/kWh, 31.67p SC.

Netexporter

I got paid to use electricity most of the night on Octopus Agile.

bristolleedsfan

Netexporter said:

I got paid to use electricity most of the night on Octopus Agile.

Not guaranteed to be low every Saturday and Sunday

I switched from Agile to Scottish Power, half price electricity every Saturday and Sunday 11am - 4pm with no clock watching at other times. low user suits me better

Scot_39

Assume that's 11am to 4pm.

bristolleedsfan said

I switched from Agile to Scottish Power, half price electricity every Saturday and Sunday 11pm - 4pm with no clock watching at other times. low user suits me better

Do they offer it on svt and fixes ?

My sisters gets only electric on svt from them and had smart fitted recently.

She's a low user though - biggest power draw is electric shower / hair drying which maybe doesn't fit in well with timings.

I'll maybe mention it to her.

bristolleedsfan

Scot_39 said:

Assume that's 11am to 4pm.

bristolleedsfan said

I switched from Agile to Scottish Power, half price electricity every Saturday and Sunday 11pm - 4pm with no clock watching at other times. low user suits me better

Do they offer it on svt and fixes ?

My sisters gets only electric on svt from them and had smart fitted recently.

She's a low user though - biggest power draw is electric shower / hair drying which maybe doesn't fit in well with timings.

I'll maybe mention it to her.

Corrected to 11am, thanks 

Yes all standard tariffs excluding prepayment

After signing up to power saver got offered £5 credit to sign up to rewards scheme

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/half-price-electricity

bristolleedsfan

Scot_39 said:

Assume that's 11am to 4pm.

bristolleedsfan said

I switched from Agile to Scottish Power, half price electricity every Saturday and Sunday 11pm - 4pm with no clock watching at other times. low user suits me better

My sisters gets only electric on svt from them and had smart fitted recently.

£7.50 a year per fuel SC reduction, no exit fees.

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/tracker

jvjack

I understand the gas thing. But i don't understand how they give the free electricity. I've had 16 hours of free electricity over christmas..
I put on the convector heater and enjoyed temperature in living room of 22 degrees instead of 19.5 that my gas boiler to radiator was managing. That's more electric than i use in a week

northernstar007  says "spare electric on the network (green days because of wind/solar)" Does that mean the electricity would be gone if we didn't use it.

debitcardmayhem

jvjack said:

I understand the gas thing. But i don't understand how they give the free electricity. I've had 16 hours of free electricity over christmas..
I put on the convector heater and enjoyed temperature in living room of 22 degrees instead of 19.5 that my gas boiler to radiator was managing. That's more electric than i use in a week

northernstar007  says "spare electric on the network (green days because of wind/solar)" Does that mean the electricity would be gone if we didn't use it.

It doesn’t work like that, the electricity is there whether you use it not. You will find that your neighbours are probably paying 22p( or more if on octopus agile) approx ker kWh whilst you are not being charged.
It”s a concession by your suppliers to their customers, they can’t put free electricity on the grid and only send it their consumers. They will still be paying for their customers consumption, just not charging them for it.

doodling

Hi,

debitcardmayhem said:

jvjack said:

I understand the gas thing. But i don't understand how they give the free electricity. I've had 16 hours of free electricity over christmas..
I put on the convector heater and enjoyed temperature in living room of 22 degrees instead of 19.5 that my gas boiler to radiator was managing. That's more electric than i use in a week

northernstar007  says "spare electric on the network (green days because of wind/solar)" Does that mean the electricity would be gone if we didn't use it.

It doesn’t work like that, the electricity is there whether you use it not. You will find that your neighbours are probably paying 22p( or more if on octopus agile) approx ker kWh whilst you are not being charged.
It”s a concession by your suppliers to their customers, they can’t put free electricity on the grid and only send it their consumers. They will still be paying for their customers consumption, just not charging them for it.

Yes, it is a bit of a commercial decision by your supplier but the explanation is not quite right.

There are two factors at play:

1. Your supplier may have entered into long term contracts with generators to take certain volumes of electricity at certain times.  If they take less then they may still have to pay for the contracted amount (in some cases they may even have to pay a penalty on top).

2. On occasion, the spot price of electricity can be very low, or even negative.

Suppliers use both of those things to offer benefits to their customers - these usually manifest as the offer of cheap prices at times when there is normally low demand for electricity.  Most suppliers only offer cheap power but some might be brave and offer free power.    Normally such offers are non contractual (i.e. could be withdrawn with little notice)  because there is always the possibility that something might happen to push wholesale prices up and make those offers non viable.