Power Move Flex

No. So I went hunting: Power Move Flex | OVO (ovoenergy.com)

I’ve seen the many complaints, but the conclusion is phoney. Ofgem classes anything less than 1800 kWh/year as low usage for dual-fuel households or 2200kWh for all electric households like mine. I fall firmly into this category, using typically ~3kWh  per day or around 1100kWh per year, but I’ve had no problem meeting the PM target.

I maintain that there’s no particular correlation between usage levels and the ability to shift usage away from weekday peak times. It’s more a question of being prepared to change behaviour in order to reduce the monthly bill. For example, is it worth £10 or £15 a month to be able to watch television between 4 and 7PM, or nowadays between 6 and 9PM? People grumble about having to pay £14 a month to be able to watch at all ...

It will be interesting to see what this new scheme involves, if I’m lucky enough to be selected.

I too am sceptical that it will make any difference to those who already can’t (or won’t) meet the current Power Move targets.

If they don’t understand that it’s not about reducing use but about about moving use from the current Fixed timeslots then I don’t see them doing any better with Flexible ie. Changing timeslots.

Particularly as it will take more effort keeping your eye on the ball of just when the timeslots are if they change each day.
(A-la Octopus ‘Flux’ tariff? I’m guessing that the similarity in name is no coincidence?).

I believe that we have identified over the past 6 months that it’s those who cook with electricty that have the best chance of meeting the PM targets, those who cook on gas struggle to meet them simply because they have no such big daily electricity use in peak time to move out of it.
That isn’t going to change by varying the target timeslots.

PS. I’m also a low user, I cook with electricity,  and I’ve met every one of the PM targets since I joined in November, and I appear to be doing even better with the 6-9 timeslot than I was with the 4-7.
Probably because cooking between 5-6 is easier, more natural, for me than waiting until after 7.
Pity the rewad has gone down.

Yes Air Fryers are great energy savers, I wouldn’t be without one now.

My latest energy saving change to cooking with electricty?

Thermos cooking.

You can cook rice, pasta, diced veg (including diced potatoes), etc. by putting them in a vaccum flask, adding boiling water (from a kettle), and leaving for about 20 minutes.

A wide mouth flask will also take larger things like baby potatoes or eggs with no problem.
If you pick the smaller potatoes they will fit whole in a normal drinks flask.

The only electricity used is that initial boil of the water.

Adjust your standing time as required for your quantities and food/dice sizes, you’ll soon get it how you like.

Basically if you can boil it in water then you can cook it in a thermos, as long as it fits.

Another bonus is that you don’t have to watch a simmering pan, a pan that’s steaming up your kitchen.

It’s a particularly good way of cooking rice once you get your quantitiles right so that the rice absorbs all the water. It makes great fluffy rice.
Put some diced veg in with the rice before filling with boiling water for an easy vegetable rice.

Tips:

• Season after cooking not before.
• Leave an air gap when filling the flask with boiling water, shake the flask, and lay it on it’s side rather than standing it up. (That prevents everything clumping in the bottom). You can give it another shake now and again.
• Spaghetti won’t fit most flasks, but it doesn’t fit pans on the stovetop either, just let it stand a couple of minutes in the boiled water to soften then you can push it down and fit the lid.
• Some things such as pearl barley, dried peas, or lentils can/will take longer than 20 mins, open the flask and fork some out to see if it’s done as you like. If not put the top back on and wait.
• You can always empty out the water and refill with new boiling water if it starts to get too cool, but I’ve never needed to do that.

If you want to use this to help with Power Move then have a second flask - you can have that full of the sauce, meat, etc, that of course you already cooked outside of the PM times.
At the moment I only have the one flask, so if I want to eat during the PM hours I’ll cook the sauce etc. earlier and just reheat in the microwave while I’m opening and draining the flask full of rice/pasta/whatever.

PS. If you don’t have a thermos then you can do the same kind of thing in any jug, pan, or bowl, it just cools a lot quicker so you may have to empty the water out and refill with another kettle of water.