OVO Power Move, can you tell me more?

@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.

@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