Power Move - new challenge information and changes to Power Move

Sorry, it’s completely unrelated to the topic, but is it really six bins? I hear about it all the time, but, in my case, it’s only two for recycling (one for paper/cardboard and another for glass/plastic/tins) and one for general. Just curious.

Exactly, run the washing machine / dryer / ironing / oven etc at times outside of 5-7pm hence shifting the usage between those hours down on average. If you boiled the kettle every day from 701pm to 1659pm you’d definitely hit it!

That’s what I mean, to use less during certain time slot, so you use more during other time. I think we both mean the same. 

I calculated the statistics and on average my monthly reward for being in PowerMove, with 12 entries per month, will be between 2p and 9p per month. Its fairly easy to do the calculations to show that.

Clearly I’m not going to take any action to avoid peak-time usage if my expected reward is now 2-9p per month, instead of £10-12.

I'll probably still sign up, because there is no penalty for signing up and NOT getting any entries, and if I happen to get entries and win £125 or £2000, fine. But since the odds of me winning the £2000 are about once every 7000 years, and my odds of winning £125 are about once every 280 years, I won’t be counting on it. £2 isn’t really worth winning anyway, and that will be about once every 2 years.

I will go back to enjoying having all my lights, heating, oven, fridge and washing machine on between 5 and 7pm on a weekday.

I’ve been participating in PM for over a year since it started. From my own experience, it’s not that easy. As a low-energy consumer, my lowest was 6%. Perhaps, I could get down to 5% if I’m very strict. Please, I would like to know, in a month's time could you comment here – have you managed to reach the 2% target?

I agree, I have taken part since the inception of “power move” started. I will not be so inclined at the chance of winning. I have the national lottery to fill that.

Hi All,

I am a single person and a conscientious low energy user. I have been in power move since April 2024. The only things I ever have switched on during peak hours are the fridge/Freezer, my broadband router, smartmetre display, oven clock, combi boiler + 1 LED light on in the room I am in. Everything else is switched off.

During the summer months when I didn’t even need a light on, the best I ever managed was 4.95% and that included switching off the fridge freezer for 3 hours (AND NOT OPENING THE DOORS!).

So this 2% target to earn £10 is impossible.

I agree with most of the previous comments. I use to brag to my friends on how I got £12 credit every month and suggested they join Ovo. But now there is no longer any point being part of OVO or power move unless you are a large family with heavy electric useage to move.

I will still not use my heavy appliances during peak hours, in order to reduce the need to run the national grid’s gas generators for better enviromental impact but I will now be shopping around  for the best rate to move supplier once my fixed tarriff is up. Other providers offer ½ price on weekends, so that at least is better than what OVO are offering.

Sad move OVO.

Oops, I see, my point about the fridge will not work that way. My bad!

Good evening,

Please be advised that ALL of my comments in this thread are my own personal thoughts unless I state otherwise. These comments were not seen by anyone at OVO prior to me posting them.

The prize draw system replaces the previous bill discount system - the old one will be fully turned off once it has run for long enough to fully satisfy the powers that be that OVO did what it was supposed to do for one full year.

There may be more rewards in store than just the ones advertised. I don’t want to give away spoilers, but something good may happen if you trigger certain conditions...

These changes are - in my view - intended to make Power Move more sustainable and scalable. Given that Power Move “V1” essentially allowed every OVO customer who took part to put a straw into OVO’s wallet and slurp out as much cash as they wanted, it was inevitably going to have to change at some point. Power Move “V2” basically puts a speed limiter on how much slurping you can do with your straw while making it more fair on everyone else because there’s more free juice to go around. But if you get lucky, PM V2 also lets you really gulp down on the free juice under the right conditions…

You’ll need to play the game to find out what some of those conditions are...

I still feel it’s better than the other alternative…

As I’ve said before, it’s better to have a voluntary scheme than a mandatory one…

Also remember that this is OVO Power MOVE, not OVO Power Shutdown. Simply nuking all your power during Peak hours and not shifting the same usage to other times will not earn any rewards. For the avoidance of any doubt, going on holiday for 2+ weeks and flatlining all your usage to almost nothing for that entire time also won’t get you rewards - you need to be actively moving usage to get the prizes...

I was wondering, does reducing peak period to 2 hours from 3 make it harder to reach the percentage?

“to put a straw into OVO’s wallet and slurp out as much cash as they wanted” – I don’t like this language. Maybe it’s just a language question, as English isn’t my first language. 
“making it more fair on everyone else” – who is “everyone else”?

I’m sorry, I’m not getting it. “Free juice”, “playing game”, “gulp down” – we all are adults here, we can call things as they are. 
Also, links related to South Africa – how are they relevant to us? 

There’s a somewhat similar scheme that runs in South Africa. Similar idea to Power Move, except it runs during extreme grid demand and is mandatory - you either take part or you get disconnected until the event is over. Oh, and if you don’t have a Smart Meter then you get instantly disconnected at the start of such events whether you like it or not. OVO Power Move doesn’t do that at least!

That’s why I consider voluntary schemes to be superior.

I also like to post things using a unique style because I find it makes the Forum more interesting. Well, I think it does anyway… Without going too deep into the weeds, “Blastoise186” is ultimately a character/persona whose personality was dreamed up over 25 years ago by the human who controls it. I (as the user behind the name) like to spin Blastoise186 as being someone who’s known for being helpful, yet has a cheeky side and known for doing silly things too. In some ways, the character reflects the personality of the user who controls it, but in others it lets him “escape the real world” and be someone who he isn’t otherwise.

I could be wrong, but at first look, as I see, shorter time slot should make it easier. But it’s a prize draw – that is what makes it harder.

It’s South Africa. It’s a different country. Why should compare ourselves to different countries?

Because different countries have different solutions to similar problems. You can learn from the mistakes (and successes!) of the others.

What I’m saying is that by taking part in Power Move, you make the National Grid less tempted to use enforced load shedding or other more extreme measures...

It’s a different country, with different circumstances etc. It’s irrelevant. We are living here, in the UK. 

​@Blastoise186 

I get your points, but I'm sure I read somewhere that most of the funding for these power shifting incentives doesn't come from the providers themselves, so slurping from the pot shouldn't really affect OVO directly. Like all these things though, I can't find the article where I read that now.

IF the hours were still 4-7pm it MIGHT be feasible for us. Since we get in from work on average around 5:30pm half of the old valid hours were with no one in, so by default the electricity usage between 4-7 as a percentage of the day was already low. However, with the hours now being 5-7 we'll be showering, cooking the evening meal, watching TV etc all inside the window. We can't shift the shower and our tea to after 7pm. It's just not practical for our lifestyle.

Like others here, I don't think I've ever won anything in a prize draw. In fact, I always say I could toss a double-headed coin and it would come up tails.

Sadly, this new format and rewards system doesn't work for us. Whether anyone likes to admit it or not, most people do stuff like this to have their ridiculously high energy bills reduced, even by a small amount. Highest in Europe I read somewhere. Very few people were probably doing Power Move to help the planet, whatever OVO may think. It's our wallets that are hurting and putting out lives into some level of disruption for the off chance we may win a prize just doesn't seem worth it.

I'll keep showering myself and cooking my tea at the usual times. If it gets me a free year of energy fine. But I won't be making any special effort to achieve the numbers.

I can't believe the emphasis being put on usage of 2% and below. Most people get in from work in that window and want to be clean, and want to eat. Just disappointing after getting SOMETHING almost every month since Power Move started that's all.

Doing the maths which is a headache, having one hour less in the peak period could make it harder to meet the 15% target, since you now have less time to use the same amount of energy (15% of your off-peak usage).

That may be true right now… But there’s nothing stopping the UK heading in the same (horrible) direction if we don’t do our bit to balance the grid.

That’s why OVO is doing stuff like Power Move, Battery Boost and Charge Anytime - it all adds up!

Already doing those things outside of the window. Not hitting it. The most energy demanding thing I do is showering at home. To boil the water, it takes 4-5kwh. And I only shower at home once every two weeks. Other time, I shower at the gym to reduce cost. And during 4-7, I only run my laptop and external monitor. My wholeday usage comes to 2-3kwh excluding showering. 2% for a 30day calendar month is at most 1.8kwh. My fridge + laptop usage definitely exceeds that in 20hr time (20 hr is assuming 4 full weeks of weekdays).

My bill is less than £32. Usage is 66 - 90kwh a month.

Just for clarity, I use 45 to 50 kW per month. This month currently my peak usage is 1.5%. Perhaps as a suggestion, just to help you, you could shower at home. There are other things as well but I guess the feeling now that because there's no financial incentive per se, that these tips are now mostly moot (I say ‘mostly’ because the tips can still help to reduce the overall bill) especially if you or anyone trying to use electricity away from home to, understandably, keep your bill down.

Even more so now if your peak usage during the 2-hour period stays the same as you'll need to use more electricity during off-peak hours to ensure that the ratio stays at or below the 15% target. The increase in off-peak usage compensates for the shorter peak period. With one less hour and being such a low user, I'll do my friends clothes washing and drying which while reducing their power consumption, it will increase my usage to continue reaching the 1.5% peak period.

I might just add that this has been discussed before in a previous post when weekends were added to PM.

Yea but
1. that’s what everyone has been saying, that you have to increase your usage just to hit target rather than simply moving non-essential electricity use
2. it’s more inefficient because you let the water cool down the whole day while the gym constantly have people using the hot water rather than letting it cool. (I wish UK homes have smaller water tanks just for the shower)

While there are schemes under the NESO Demand Flexibility Service that are centrally funded, I think I’m right in saying that Power Move isn’t one of them. OVO is doing it off its own back. 

This is precisely the rationale for Power Move! Unless people can be persuaded to change their lifestyle, the peak of electricity demand in the early evening will continue to be a headache, boosting the burning of fossil fuel to power your shower and cooker in the early evening. Here’s yesterday’s GB usage of gas to generate electricity:
  

   
Just occasionally (three times so far this winter), NESO sends out a warning that demand is expected to exceed supply, like this a couple of weeks ago:
  

 
This is the sort of thing that could in severe conditions lead to widespread power cuts, when there just isn’t enough electricity to go around. Power Move and similar schemes help to mitigate shortages like this, especially if they bring about changes in behaviour.
 

While there are schemes under the NESO Demand Flexibility Service that are centrally funded, I think I’m right in saying that Power Move isn’t one of them. OVO is doing it off its own back. 

​@Firedog was is that way in all previous years, or it’s just this year? From that little I read while googling, I understood that since ESO became NESO there were made some changes and some participants weren’t happy about that. Is that the case? 
(I’m fully absorbed in reading documents, thank you for the link!)

I’m still very unhappy with the changes, but at least I’m getting a better understanding with what’s going on. 

I can’t remember, but I think PM has always been OVO’s own initiative. I won’t be surprised if someone comes along to prove me wrong, though.
    

You can please some of the people all of the time, but …