OVO Power Move, can you tell me more?

Thank you will follow this. 

Hello 

Is anyone out there involved in the Power Move Scheme?

Howdy @Nemsys ,

I’ve not seen anyone yet but it should be starting soon. There’s a new Group here on the forum too for it! Check it out via https://forum.ovoenergy.com/groups . :)

I've just read that OVO Energy are planning to trial a scheme to encourage customers (with Smart Meters) to reduce their electrical energy consumption between 4 pm and 7 pm each day by ca 6-7%  of their daily demand (in our house this would equate to 1.1 kWh - we are 100% electric).  In return for this - if successful - the customer would be rewarded with a fixed £20 per month refund against their bill - so could earn £100 refund in the 5 month trial.  The trial scheme is reportedly being called "Power Move"  (not "Power Drive" as I put in the title!) and is designed to help the National Grid manage peak electricity demand this winter. Has anyone had an email inviting them to take part? Can you think of a better name for the trial? If you were asked and wanted to take part what would you do to reduce your electrical demand during this 3 hour period??

@Corgimajor It’s something of interest certainly - I have another thread talking about general demand reduction and peak hours which seems to point to peak hours being the critical element. Knowing that National Grid have a challenge to meet demand at that time and that extra EV use will only add to this, it sounds a good idea. 
I don’t know of anyone who has had an invite so far (it’ll be interesting to see any responses here) but general move of energy use at that time is a start (perhaps move shower use later and part pre-cook food maybe). Then for those with battery storage, charging overnight and powering during those times is possible. 

Hey @Corgimajor,

What an interesting conversation!

I can confirm that we've already invited eligible customers and we'll be contacting those that are part of the trial this Friday with a welcome email.

It’ll be really interesting to see the outcome of the trial, maybe this kind of incentivized balancing on the grid will be rolled out by energy companies on a larger scale in the future. 

That’s a shame @Emmanuelle_OVO . It looks like I don’t get to trial this one, which I was looking forward to 😥

This is all very odd @Emmanuelle_OVO 

Surely the aim is to get as many users taking part as possible to enable the greatest energy shift possible to reduce the peak demands?

For anyone interested, the Octopus scheme, called Saving Sessions (very boring name!), is available to all of their customers with smart meters. It works slightly differently as the price you are paid is per unit of energy saved. For every unit of customers save compared to their normal usage during a specific timeframe they expect to pay customers £4 on average. If this is done on 25 sessions over the winter then you would potentially get £100. This would suggest that anyone who is able to save or shift more units would be paid more.

@Emmanuelle_OVO is ovo going to take part in the separate national grid eso demand flexibility service?

https://www.nationalgrideso.com/industry-information/balancing-services/demand-flexibility

This is not the same as the small ovo trial. Octopus have launched their offer. 

@Jeffus the information on the Money Saving Expert site about which suppliers are thinking of taking part is very disappointing. They understand that the OVO trial has about 5000 participants out of their 4+ million customers.

nealmurphy wrote:

@Jeffus the information on the Money Saving Expert site about which suppliers are thinking of taking part is very disappointing. They understand that the OVO trial has about 5000 participants out of their 4+ million customers.

 

Very unimpressed that OVO don't have a scheme all their customers can sign up for. 

Also 5000 for a trail sounds very low, the previous Octopus trial was 100,000.

Hi is this true ovo are offering 20 a month for customers who don't use much engry between 4pm till 7pm

Hi @Elly

This is the trial

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ovoenergy.com/blog/ovo-news-power-move/amp

Unfortunately OVO have already contacted all those they have chosen to take part

So if you haven't heard yet you won't be part of the trial.

Octopus for example have a scheme open to all their customers. It is not the same, but does offer potential discounts. 

https://octopus.energy/saving-sessions/

Hello Blastoise 

I’ve been told that I don’t fit the selection criteria because I have solar so I’m not really interested anymore. Thanks anyway. 

@Nemsys

It is a different scheme, but Octopus have Saving Sessions open to all their customers 

https://octopus.energy/saving-sessions/

Hey @Jeffus,

To be honest I’m not sure… I’ll do some digging for you and let you know! 🙂

Why not Solar users?  

They are already contibuting massively at each location by dropping power usage - 15kWh per day for example and a lot of that could be during the afternoon peak - so why not reward them to with a fixed daily fee?

Already plenty of incentives for solar. It would be wasted money. 

We need mass participation initiatives. 

There were only 1828 SEG customers with OVO in the last financial year out of 5m OVO customers.

Solar is really great but so much better to use and store your solar. 

As far as I understand these schemes, the aim is to shift consumption out of the anticipated collective peak demand (that’s when the risk of power cuts will arise, and these schemes are an attempt to reduce that risk). Only consumers who contribute to that existing/anticipated peak can help towards this specific aim. (And battery owners, including EV owners are very unlikely to be contributing to that existing peak. In the depths of winter, I think batteries are much more relevant to this problem than solar panels, though I own neither.)

I don’t follow these things closely, but I believe the market price at these peak times can be very very high, so high that paying a comparable amount to a user not to consume at these times (which is equally cost effective in reducing the risk of power cuts) can seem very generous.

But, we get what we deserve, having elected successive governments that introduced and maintain a market system for the supply of our energy. For that market to function as a market, all the energy traded within each window has to be priced the same as the last deal struck within that window. That’s why our renewable energy (wind and solar) costs us as much as  electricity generated by burning gas (gas being expensive, that is generally the supply of last resort).

You may well say that’s a stupid system, and the outrageous profits of the energy generators/extractors in the current period would seem to support that assessment.

If those with political power can be influenced by the behaviour of mere consumers, then I would say we have a duty to “game” the system in whatever way we can to make it more just. (I mean, ruthless exploitation of weaknesses in the schemes’ designs. They’re not all the same by any means.) Only in this way might a stupid system be replaced by a more sensible system.

/rant off, /irony on

Enjoy the coming winter, everyone…

/irony off

@Simon1D the government have recently passed legislation to break the link with the highest price electricity

It is in the Energy Prices bill which is now law. 

The Bill also introducing legislation around the old non fossil fuel contracts which were poor value for money. 

Further details to follow. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-introduces-new-energy-prices-bill-to-ensure-vital-support-gets-to-british-consumers-this-winter#:~:text=The%20Energy%20Prices%20Bill%2C%20introduced,Bill%20Relief%20Scheme%20for%20businesses

With the most up to date solar systems it is possible to chose when you use battery energy.      So,   a solar system can be set to use battery during that peak time rather than from te grid and se grid power at low demand times.

Thanks very much for that info, @Jeffus, which had completely passed me by. I scanned that link and see that details depend on a consultation - taking steps to break the link sounds more like an aspiration, albeit one with a target date of 1 Jan 2023. From that site:

Limiting revenue to cost-plus sounds like pretty heavy government intervention, potentially more significant than a “windfall tax” would be, but with the advantage (to them) that its name doesn’t include the bogey word “tax”.

In the depths of winter, when the risk of these power cuts is greatest, and solar generation is at its least important, I imagine that the best use of those batteries would be to charge them at off-peak times (from the grid) and discharge them at peak times (firstly to meet the owner’s demand, but feeding any surplus back into the grid). By all means generate what you can with solar panels, but in winter, that won’t be much.

A technical question on power move.  I was trying to work out how much electricity I used between 4pm and 7pm.   The OVO data in my account shows 30 minute intervals.    Does the 7pm KWH  useage relate to the period from 6.30 to 7pm or from 7 to 7.30pm.