British Gas is intending to offer free power on Saturdays to its customers with smart meters in 2014.

The energy firm’s parent company Centrica already offers the scheme in its Direct Energy operations in the United States.

“British Gas is now trialling various types of time-of-use tariffs with a small number of customers here in the UK, and we are positive about the early results," said a British Gas spokesperson. "We are building on these learnings with the intention of launching a time-of-use tariff early next year.

“To be eligible, customers will need a smart meter, and we have already installed 600,000 of these in homes across the country. This is still at an early stage and more information will be provided in due course. If customers call to express an interest in smart meters, they can register their interest for a smart meter on our website: britishgas.co.uk/smart.”

This follows news that the conversion of 53 million households' meters to smart meters has been pushed back from 2014 to 2015, potentially impacting the reach of British Gas' upcoming tariff.