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Council staff in Dumfries and Galloway have been asked to switch off non-essential electrical equipment in a bid to avoid high charges.

Staff were alerted on Tuesday after a warning from their power supplier.

The council said that under its contract there were about 10 periods a year when it could face "significantly increased costs".

It said this was a way to manage times of lower power generation and high demand on the National Grid.

The charging system is designed to encourage larger industrial users of electricity to reduce their charges by reducing consumption over peak periods.

It aims to ensure a "smoothing" effect on demand and also avoid building ever more infrastructure.