'Big Power Off' Protest Will Now Go Ahead Weekly In The UK

The first protest, which took place last night (Sunday 10 April) at 10pm, saw Brits turn lights off and unplug their electrical appliances to take a stand against the terrifying spike in energy prices. 

Organiser Karen Brady has confirmed the protest will become a weekly event in the UK, with the next mass switch-off taking place on Saturday 16 April at 7pm. 

Announcing the new date, Brady tweeted: “Next #BigPowerOff2 will be earlier at 7pm Saturday 16th April, just before Parliament arrives back from their holidays. RT & share on all social media platforms. Thanks to EVERYONE involved. Solidarity in numbers. Enough is enough!” 

By encouraging everyone to switch off their power for 10 minutes, the aim is to let the energy companies know how average people feel, while also making a clear statement to the government. 

Brady told LADbible that the first protest on Sunday evening was just a ‘mild’ taster of the disruption that could follow, saying the next event will tie in with a busier period. 

She said: “We are building up our movement and gathering momentum across all social media platforms. 

“We wanted mild disruption for the first one, that’s why I chose 10pm Sunday.” 

Brady explained that she had been inspired to do something after seeing similar action in Spain, first in Madrid and then in Murcia. 

While some people suggested ‘smashing the grid entirely’, Brady knew that such drastic action could be dangerous – for example, for ‘people who have medical devices for survival’. 

She said that, by ‘building national support’, the movement aimed to get the government to ‘see that we’re serious’. 

“Everyone can get involved with this at home,” she added. 

“Everyone’s suffering from the rises.” 

The first protest proved so popular that it trended at number one on Twitter last night.

When asked if the switch-off would become a weekly fixture, off the back of the success of its first instalment, Brady said the campaign would continue until calls for emergency steps are met.

She said: "It will become a weekly event, yes, until we get our demands for special emergency measures to reduce energy costs like Spain has."

Organisers previously said that the action is intended to be ‘non-partisan’, with a social media post explaining: “The idea is that, if it won't put you at risk, you switch off all of your electrical appliances, lights, or switch off at the breakers for 10 minutes.

“This short power off will cause an imbalance on the national grid, where consumption becomes lower than predicted and therefore the electrical supply is too great.

“To protect the grid, power stations will be temporarily disconnected or issued notices to attenuate their output.

“Because the grid is publicly owned, but power supply is private, this effectively creates a 10 minute boycott of the privatised portions of our power supply, losing them up to an estimated £9m in revenue.

“That's right, private energy companies take in an estimated £9m every 10 minutes in UK!

“It is hoped that this slap in the wallet will cause energy companies to revise their prices, as was the case in Spain.”