The Big Switch Off: What is the energy protest, when is the next event and now can it impact the cost of living?

The rising cost of living is hitting people across the country and a new series of protests, dubbed the Big Power Switch Off, is looking to protest the additional costs.

The first event saw homes across the UK switch off their power at 10:00pm on Sunday April 10 as a way to fight against rising energy prices in the UK.

The idea originated from a Facebook post which called for a ten minute switch off of all electrical appliances in homes across the country at 10:00pm on Sunday night.

The post read: “Tonight is the night of the big power-off. 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” the post continued.

"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.”

It has been described by the organisers as a non-partisan protest.

When is the next Big Power Switch Off?

The second protest has been confirmed to happen at the earlier time of 7:00pm on Saturday April 16.

How could the Big Power Switch Off impact the cost of living?

Organisers are hoping a large amount of people turning their power off at the same time could cause energy companies to reduce their costs, lessening the financial impact on UK households.

This is due to the potential loss of revenue the ten minute period could create.

Rising energy prices have been just one of the impacts of the current cost of living crisis. Petrol prices and food costs have also risen while struggling families may also miss out on an automatic £150 council tax rebate announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.