How didn't I meet the Power Move target when I wasn't even at home for 2 weeks?

Hi @waltyboy 

All on track here, currently 11.12%

Was down at 10.44% but i was out and ran over the 4pm cooking dinner by 10 mins the other day. Knew i wasnt going to last until 7pm and then cook🤣

Hi @Ria Keep up those good stats!

I’m now in my tenth day of no electricity usage stats in my account, so frustrating; but at least from my own monitoring of the IHD and the meter itself (both of which are still reading fine) I have the satisfaction of knowing that so far this month I would have been on target!

all the best…and enjoy your evening meal!

In common with some others, I was away for 2 weeks in September so not using any electricity during this time; but I still failed to reach the target.  It looks pretty much the same for October as I have already been told I am unlikely to hit the target.  This is despite the fact that the only electrical item I run in the afternoon and evening is the TV  - the dishwasher and washing machine are run in the morning when I go to work!  I have no confidence that I will get any credit at all.

Hi @kstride That is very dispiriting, when it’s not clear how we can reduce peak hours  usage further in order to reach the target, don’t get downhearted about it, though, there’s lots of helpful interest from folk on this forum. Even if you find you’re not hitting the required target for October then A) it’s not worth worrying about too much, it’s as much about raising queries in our own minds about our peak usage and seeing how improvements in our usage can possibly be made…if they can’t, then they can’t! B) you’ve already registered for the Sep and Oct Power Move (as I understand things?) so there’s always November and December for you to have a go.

Firstly, though, I’m afraid being away from home has absolutely no bearing on the incentive. You could go away for a month, switching off your electricity at your mains incomer with zero consumption for the month, and you still wouldn’t hit the target. The Power Move incentive is all about comparing your peak 4-7 weekday evening usage with your overall 24 hour weekday usage.  Individual days’ performances don’t especially matter on their own, as all the weekday peak usages are added up at month end, and then compared with all the aggregated weekday total usages, to arrive at a percentage figure. 
 

what this means is that, for this incentive, you have to make your peak weekday  4-7 slot over the month  “look good” compared to all the other 21 hours in your weekday.  It sounds to me like you shouldn’t be far from reaching the target: dishwasher and washing machine run in the morning and only TV in the afternoon and evening? Your ‘fridge and all the other background household stuff like heating and broadband and lighting (reasonable levels!) shouldn’t  impact on the incentive, as presumably they’re not being highly over-used in the crucial weekday 4-7 slot as compared with the other 21 weekday hours?

It’s a bit of a mystery why you’re not hitting the target…you don’t mention kettles, microwaves, ovens, toasters and other cooking and beverage-type stuff.

Remember, weekend usage is “invisible” for the purpose of this incentive, it’s weekdays only.  

The only way you’re going to solve this mystery is to sit down with pencil and paper, go into your OVO account page and add up all your weekday half-hourly usages between 4 and 7PM over, say, a full week (that’ll be 30 slots, in kWh not in £, all added together). While you’re there, see if any of those crucial half hour slots seem to display high usage, and try to work out why.  Next, work out the aggregated 30 total as a percentage of your total 5-day weekday usage for that week.

If you’re feeling chipper, you could work out the whole of October’s weekdays  to date! Although remember your OVO usage account will always lag by a day or so.

It sounds complicated, it really isn’t as bad as it may sound! I’m no more numerate than the next person, and 10 minutes with a calculator (and a cuppa!) should start to arrive at an answer to your puzzling mystery.

Good luck with that, keep us posted on your findings!

I was on holiday from 4th October till 26th October no one in the house. No heating on for 3wks, no cooking,washing or drying for 3 weeks and still never made the savings for October. September was similar with 2 weeks holiday no one in the house for 2 weeks.

Its not about reducing your overall usage but moving when you use it. So if you don't use much because you are away there is nothing to move so you won't reach the target. 

If you had a totally flat usage profile for most of October, then you wouldn’t have used 13.5% or less power within the peak times.

It seems the smart meters are smarter than the readers at Power Move. I keep getting told my meters are not sending in readings so I can’t gain from Power Move. All they have to do is take a look at my account, just like I do regularly, and they will see lots of readings. Where do they find their employees?

That’s not how it works - it all runs on automated systems.

Try https://smart-meter-help.ovoenergy.com to get this fixed. That tool runs a bunch of diagnostics and then sends a report to the relevant time for analysis.

Like I said. There’s nothing wrong with my meters. They’re sending out readings just fine.