Short Notice of Power Move Flex Events

yeah same here - less than 2 hours notice. I get there’s probably a reason behind it but it is such a shame, because with a bit more notice and time to plan, we could make more of a useful difference. 

There was one today?

Think so,  I got told :

Power down For 1 hour between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM on 18 December.

Power down For 1 hour between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM on 19 December.

Message came to my email at 15:11.  Perhaps they haven't sent yours yet Firedog 😁

Yup, I got one for 2024-12-19 17:00 to 2024-12-19 18:00 at 2024-12-19 15:11. I missed it, but I had a little nap from 16:00 for a couple of hours with not much going on meanwhile, so who knows? Even if any reward isn’t significant, adding a brownie point to the number of successful challenges might pay off.

Yes, I think it’s quite likely that they’re testing whether people can react at really short notice. They’d have to if a bunch of terrorists blew up a pylon or two, after all. We may all have to get used to the idea ...

I don't think your rather dramatic scenario could be fixed by everyone delaying their evening meals by an hour !

Well, with terrorists like Darragh cropping up with increased frequency, you could imagine a scenario where a felled pylon could, instead of blacking out half of Wales, only affect a smaller area because National Grid were able to shuffle supply around a bit by persuading some customers to demand less power than usual. Who knows?

For me, two hours is too short, particularly at meal times, but that is only because of my personal circumstances.  

More generally, I think it might cause many to miss the event as they don’t see the e-mail in time.

For me, the shorter the notice the more it’s just luck that I take part - luck that I’ve seen the notice, luck that I can flex.  With more notice I can factor that in my day  and to plan / organise ready to  Flex my Elec up or down. 

I don't personally like short notice because I feel I don't get chance to make a useful difference to consumption without the time to organise my Elec use but I get that as a trial, it needs to be known what happens with short notice eg power distribution issues / failures etc  And, as a trial just my taking part is useful :) 

I guess also a lot depends on numbers of participants. If Flexing becomes a way of life for all, then with 28 million households it probably wont matter if some miss the notice.