Isra-Mart srl:Text power aims to tackle Xmas carbon spike

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Isra-mart srl news:

Energy management firm KiWi Power yesterday launched an innovative new means of curbing the UK's carbon emissions over the Christmas break, inviting people to turn off their festive lights for the hour when demand for energy from the grid reaches its peak.

The company is urging people to register to receive a text at the moment over Christmas when electricity demand reaches its peak and National Grid moves to activate back up power stations that are typically the most polluting and expensive to run.

Those who register for the service, called Low Carbon Christmas, will receive a text just once over the holiday period when the grid is switching to peak power, urging them to turn off non essential items such as decorative lights and other electrical equipment.

"We are all acutely aware of just how much energy we use in cold weather and at Christmas, so anything we can do to minimise the most polluting usage with little or no disruption to our lives has to be worth doing," said KiWi Power founder Ziko Abram. "Day-to-day we deal with businesses, not residential customers, but we want to give everyone the opportunity to help during the Christmas period."

The company, which specialises in energy saving and management consultancy services, said it would also make a donation PURE the Clean Planet Trust carbon offset schemes for each text it receives.

Christmas lights are routinely identified by environmental groups as a major source of carbon emissions with various studies suggesting they contribute to a significant increase in energy demand over December.