National Grid (LON:NG) is offering to pay households up to £240 to use less electricity in the event the UK has a power shortage over the winter.
Customers will be paid to switch off during peak times and use equipment such as washing machines, dishwashers and computers after 9pm.
National Grid is running twelve tests of the new scheme to reduce usage and during these periods households can receive a minimum £3 for each kilowatt hour of power they don’t use.
Grid will pay the money to the suppliers but if this is passed through to the customer an average household will receive around £20 or £240 for all twelve tests.
National Grid is introducing the scheme due to fears of blackouts if gas supplies to run power stations are badly disrupted during the winter.
It has raised the price it is prepared to pay from 52p per Kwh due to fears it was not a big enough incentive for people to sign up.
Fintan Slye, the director of National Grid ESO, its electricity system operator, said: “Businesses and homes can become virtual power plants and, crucially, get paid like one too.
“For a consumer that could mean a typical household could save approximately £100 and, for industrial and commercial businesses with larger energy usage, they could potentially save multiples of this.”
National Grid boss John Pettigrew told a conference last week that there was a prospect of power outages between 4pm-7pm on weekdays if there is a cold snap in January and February and gas imports are disrupted.
This week the FTSE 100 company added: “There are a range of scenarios for what this winter might look like, so we can't be definitive on how often we will need to use the service.”
Households need to have a smart meter to be able to take part in the scheme.