17th Mar 2014 15:18
LONDON (Alliance News) - British Gas, the major UK energy supplier owned by Centrica PLC, is planning to give away free electricity on Saturdays to reduce peak demand and stop customers switching supplier, according to The Times on Monday.
The company is planning to launch the offer in Autumn, which will likely be for its duel fuel electricity and gas customers on smartmeters, retaining the "last resort" option of ending the tariff for abusers of the free power.
?Ninety-nine per cent of customers would use this responsibly for the right reasons,? Senior Executive Ian Peters told The Times. ?There may be 2 to 3 per cent of people out there who do a very strange use or extreme behaviour. I will go for the greater good.?
Along with the other major energy firms in the UK, British Gas has been under scrutiny for increasing energy prices in the winter amid dwindling household budgets and protests from consumer groups.
In February, the company revealed that more than 460,000 customers had left the firm after it announced a 9.2% price rise in November.
Under the deal, which may be expanded to include a separate free electricity Sunday rather than Saturday tariff, electricity will be free between 9am and 5pm, according to The Times.
Peters told The Times that while the company is expecting to lose some money by the offer, by boosting customer numbers the plan would be profitable in the long term.
British Gas was not immediately available to comment to Alliance News on Monday.
Centrica shares were up 0.8% to 333.00 pence Monday.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/money/consumeraffairs/article4035590.ece
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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