Talybont on Usk Energy

News and Events

Local Residents are Asked to Join Rest Of UK
in Taking Part In The First Energy Saving Day

Talybont-n-Usk Energy is asking local residents to take part in the national Energy Saving Day that is taking place at the end of February.

The UK's first Energy Saving Day (E-Day) will be happening on Wednesday 27 February 2008. The day will highlight the potential for energy saving measures in the course of a typical 24 hours, and will strive to get this message across with a series of uniquely inventive, exciting and motivating events.

A launch event, to which all members of the press are invited, will take place at St. Paul's Cathedral at 5pm on Wednesday 27 February 2008. It will include a candle-lit vigil for the Planet, games, a pedal-powered cinema, the premiers of a small number of fun and factual films, a welcoming address by the Bishop of London and a brief explanation of E-Day's goals and activities.

The UK is using more and more energy each year. As result, we are building new power stations to meet the increasing demand and guarantee future supplies, spending more money on energy bills and releasing more greenhouse gases and pollution into the atmosphere. These trends can feel inevitable and overwhelming, but cheap and simple ways of saving energy, such as leaving things off, are available to almost everyone. E-Day's "Leave It Off" experiment will be launched from St Paul's Cathedral at 6pm on Wednesday 27 February and finish at 6pm on Thursday 28 February.

Over the 24 hours of E-Day everyone in the country will be invited to see if they can save energy in their home, school or office and then offered direct feedback on the results of their actions on national electricity demand via the E-Day website (www.e-day.org.uk). The cumulative effects of millions of energy saving measures will be updated minute-by-minute. Syndicated versions of the data will be made available to media organisations and news websites for free.

The E-Day website will also offer information on some of the potential solutions to climate change that have been proposed especially for E-Day by a wide variety of major businesses, charities and scientists.

As their contribution to E-day, the big energy companies will be backing efforts to insulate large numbers of houses for free or at greatly reduced cost. The UK's biggest retailer, Tesco, will be helping shoppers to make more informed energy saving choices.

The UK's major environment and development charities will be highlighting some of the innovative and practical solutions, which could help us to tackle climate change. E-Day is being supported by: Artists' Project Earth, Ashden Awards, BTCV, Business Council for Sustainable Energy, City of London, Christian Aid, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Conservation Foundation, EDF Energy, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, E.ON, Greenpeace, Green Thing, Green.tv, iCount (Stop Climate Chaos coalition), More Associates, NPower, Scottish and Southern Energy, Scottish Power, Tesco, National Grid, National Trust, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, St. Paul's Cathedral, Woodland Trust.

Notes to Editors

1. To promote understanding of renewable energy sources, uses of alternative energy and related ecological and environmental issues;
2. To promote renewable energy schemes in, and for the benefit of, the community of Talybont- on-Usk, including the provision and maintenance of a hydro-electric generating turbine at Talybont on Usk Energy reservoir;
3. To promote the efficient use of energy and use of renewable sources of energy.

Leave It Off

Staging E-Day over 24 hours will help to minimise the risks associated with large swings in electricity demand, while allowing time for significant energy savings to be achieved. The minute-by-minute data available on the E-Day website will allow individuals to judge whether the country succeeds in reducing its demand for electricity over the course of 24 hours, and also allow E-Day to highlight energy saving as a simple and painless way in which everyone can help to tackle climate change.

Given the number of non-essential household items that are left on, the widespread uptake of this call to action has the potential to result in a 1-3% drop in the UK's electricity demand.

If repeated regularly, it has been estimated that leaving off of unnecessary electrical items would equate to permanently turning off a medium-sized (500MW) coal-fired power station or not needing to use approximately 500 (1MW) wind turbines.

Changes between the country's predicted "Business-As-Usual" demand for electricity and actual "Energy Saving Day" demand will be used to establish whether the public's efforts to "Leave It Off" have amounted to anything.

National Grid has agreed to predict demand the day before E-Day happens and to help the public to access this information via the E-Day website. It will also manage any changes in electricity demand and refine its forecasts, used to determine the effectiveness of E-Day, based on the weather during E-Day, as well as any other unexpected news or television events.

Leave It Off will be staged as a national web-based news event. In addition to the minute-by-minute data which will be covered in detail on the E-Day website, and syndicated to others for free. Summaries of E-Day's total carbon, money and energy savings will be made available to the press.

Where necessary Energy Saving Day's homepage could also act as visually compelling backdrop for live television programmes.

By showing the cumulative effects of millions of peoples' energy saving efforts, over a specific time, we hope individuals will decide that it is worth their time and effort to leave off electrical items, and that they can help to make a difference by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping to tackle climate change.

Insulation offer

Householders will be able to sign up for an assessment of their insulation needs via the E-Day website, and to ask the energy provider of their choice to insulate their house appropriately.

This simplified access to insulation is new and designed to enable anyone who wants to insulate their house to do so with the minimum of fuss.

The energy companies will be competing on price and able to offer additional goods and services, beyond the core common offering.

Stop Climate Chaos (SCC) + National Trust

Lord May

Tesco

Short documentary films

Facebook / You Tube

Quotes:

Dr Matt Prescott said:
"I am delighted that so many different organisations have agreed to help individuals, households, schools and businesses to save energy and to support E-Day by highlighting some of the practical solutions to climate change. I hope that E-Day will provide a fun, positive and inclusive focus for the widespread changes that everyone in our society needs to consider if we are to succeed in reducing our energy use and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate change."

National Grid's Global Head of Climate Change Policy, Joe Kwasnik, said: "Tackling climate change effectively means having a sustainable plan, and using energy more efficiently will be key to success.
"National Grid has already reduced its own CO2 emissions by 35% and is on track to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 60% before 2050. But we are supporting E-Day because everyone can play their part, and also help to reduce their bills, by only using the energy they need."

Lord Robert May of Oxford University said:
"E-day is a very good idea, with the potential to dramatise one of the differences we each can make with very little inconvenience. In this way, E-day is useful in itself, but it is even more useful for its potential to engage people in the larger tasks ahead of us if we are to avoid catastrophic levels of climate change."

The RSPB's Director of Conservation, Dr Mark Avery, said:
"The UK is struggling to cut its emissions every year, even as the impacts of climate change begin to appear around us: birds nesting earlier and falling out of synch with their insect food, migrant birds over-wintering in the UK instead of flying south. That's why the RSPB is supporting the UK's first Energy Saving Day on 27-28th February, because everyone has the power to cut their energy waste.
When we all act together, we'll see how easy it is, and what a large chunk we can take out of the UK's energy use and the greenhouse gases produced. The RSPB will be urging everyone who wants a safe climate future for birds and wildlife to join the action on E-Day, and to stay attuned to energy-saving for long afterwards."

Additional notes:

Steering Group:

Contact details:

Alice Goldstone
Project Development Officer
Talybont on Usk Energy
01547 520374
Email:

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