British Gas change for customers who use electricity between 11am and 4pm

British Gas says households can get half-price electricity on Sundays up until Christmas through British Gas' PeakSave Sundays scheme. British Gas' PeakSave scheme offers qualifying customers half-price electricity between 11am and 4pm each Sunday as these are "off-peak times".

But the GreenFlex events offer savings during times of sun or wind when more renewable energy is available. British Gas - which is rivalled by OVO, EDF, EON and more - uses its own forecasting to set the events and email customers to let them know how to save.

"PeakSave rewards customers for shifting their electricity usage to times when there’s less demand, or more renewable electricity available on the grid, supporting a greener energy supply," the firm said. "So far, British Gas has paid over £15 million to more than 675,000 customers taking part in the scheme.

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"What’s more, customers have saved around 552 tonnes of carbon emissions and shifted 17,576 MWh of electricity – just through PeakSave Sundays alone.And now we’ve launched PeakSave Green Flex - giving customers even more ways to save costs and carbon with British Gas."

Peak electricity hours tend to be in the morning when people are getting ready to head out to work and school and, in the evening, when they’re returning and making evening meals. Therefore, electricity use peaks at around 7am to 11am and then again from 5pm to 9pm.

Some energy tariffs allow consumers to save money by using electricity at off-peak hours. However, consumers on standard flat-rate or fixed energy tariffs pay the same for their electricity regardless of the time of day they use it.

Energy systems need to continuously match supply to demand. This is called energy balancing. Flexible energy, or flexible demand, helps energy systems maintain this balance during periods of uncertainty, the firm goes on to also say.