The answer is blowing in the wind – tackling climate change by putting the washing on when the wind blows and the sun shines

Most of us know that we need to reduce how much energy we use – but did you know that the timing of our energy use will also make a difference to the fight against climate change? Think of it like this. At the moment, most of our power comes from fossil-fuelled power stations, like the ones in the graph below. We can easily switch more of these power stations on at times of the day when we need more energy, such as to heat our bedrooms when we wake up the mornings (the breakfast peak) and even more when we get home from work at night and want to make dinner and sit in a cosy living room (the evening peak). But what do you think is going to happen when we reduce our fossil fuel use in favour of cleaner alternatives like wind and solar power? The wind doesn’t blow all the time and the sun doesn’t shine all day. In the winter, we don’t get much sun at all…

Is it windy outside? Let’s pop the washing on

As you can imagine, the wind won’t necessarily be blowing off the coast of Scotland at exactly the time when we wake up and want to make our morning cup of tea or coffee. The answer is to take advantage of these clean sources of energy by shifting some of our electricity use to times of the day when it’s windiest or sunniest. The idea of putting our washing on when the wind blows might sound strange (usually, we’d want to put our washing out!). However, doing this could actually be quite straightforward if we used the delay timers on our wet kitchen appliances. Many modern washing machines, for example, come with a timer that lets you put your washing in the machine but delay when the load actually gets washed. So, rather than our energy supplies having to keep up with our demand, we’re going to need to start doing a bit more of the work by adjusting our patterns to meet supply. For those in the know, this is called ‘demand-side response’.

Buying energy more like we buy our train tickets – smart meters and off-peak tariffs

Changing when we use our energy won’t just help the environment it could also save us money on our bills. That’s because, once we all have our smart meters, we’ll be able to choose from a greater variety of energy tariffs that charge us less for the energy we use at certain times of the day. These tariffs are called time of use (or, off-peak) tariffs and they work just like off-peak train tickets – train tickets are cheapest at times of the day when the trains are least busy; on an off-peak electricity tariff, electricity is cheapest at times of the day when fewer people are using electricity (those are the low points on the line graph). In the same way that you can reduce your travel costs by catching the train at off-peak times, when you switch to a time of use tariff, you can save money on your electricity bill by using more of your electricity at off-peak times when the rates are lowest.

Different tariffs do different jobs

Some of these tariffs, like the one in the picture on the right, might have two or more rates that are the same every day, all year around (static time of use tariffs). These could help lower the big peaks in our energy use. Others will vary the price of electricity from day to day to help make use of intermittent renewables like wind. On a “dynamic” time of use tariff, for example, customers might get a text message letting them know that they can get cheaper electricity for a few (windy) hours! But does anybody in Britain want these tariffs?

Our research found that just under one in three British consumers are in favour of buying their energy more like they buy their train tickets

Myself and my colleagues Mike, David and Gesche at the UCL Energy Institute ran two online nationwide surveys of British energy bill payers to find out whether they’d like to switch to an off-peak tariff like the one I described above, and about 30% said they would. This represents one of the first measures of national demand for a next-generation time of use tariff. Accurate estimates of demand for these tariffs are needed so policymakers can predict what contribution consumers will make to helping the country take advantage of its future renewable energy supplies. Previous studies had been run on very niche customer groups so couldn’t speak for the average British consumer. What surprised us most was that the most popular type of tariff was one which involved a third party being able to switch your heating on and off for short periods to make the most of the cheap times; in qualitative studies, people had said they’d be quite against this sort of ‘intrusion’ into the running of their households.

No evidence that these tariffs will be snapped up by the rich but ignored by the poor

The popularity of these tariffs was not affected by age, gender, income, educational attainment or across bill payers who live in social housing as opposed to private renters or homeowners. Pre-payment meter customers, the majority of whom are thought to belong to some of the most disadvantaged groups in Britain, were just as willing to switch to the tariff as credit customers. Taken together with the finding that social housing tenants are also just as willing to switch, the study finds no evidence that disadvantaged or vulnerable customers are less likely to benefit from smart meters as a result of being unwilling and therefore less likely to switch to a time of use tariff. These results are good news for policymakers who are committed to ensuring that the benefits of smart meters are shared equitably across the population.

A future of overnight car chargers?

More research is required to test whether, once on a time of use tariff, low-income or vulnerable consumers are less able to save money on a time of use tariff. This would be possible if, for example, low-income groups were less able to purchase the types of technologies which make it easier for households to shift their electricity consumption away from peak times. For example, a quick look at the website of a major supermarket chain shows that prices of tumble dryers with timers range from £150-£400. Plug-in electric or hybrid vehicle owners could save a lot of money on a time of use tariff by charging their cars at home during the cheaper night-time hours. Indeed, we also found that time of use tariffs were more popular amongst British consumers who owned electric and hybrid vehicles (even after controlling for differences in people’s socio-economic status). However, a brand new Plug-in Toyota Prius will set you back over £20,000; a new Ford Fiesta, which runs on petrol, costs about half that. However, as the electric vehicle market grows, we would expect prices to decrease, making it easier for the average person to switch to an electric vehicle and reap the benefits of the cheaper electricity rates on time of use tariffs.

For more information on the research, see an online copy of the report Is it time? Consumers and time of use tariffs which was launched on 10 March 2015 in Parliament. The event was chaired by Dan Byles MP, member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, and was also addressed by Sacha Deshmukh, CEO of Smart Energy GB (who supported the work). The launch was followed by a wide-ranging discussion with key representatives from the energy industry, the energy market regulator Ofgem and the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

By: Moira Nicolson MPhil/PhD candidate, Bartlett School of Environment, Energy & Resources, UCL Energy Institute

Continue the conversation with Moria @moiranics