Is the new power move criteria a con?

Hi Fancyabrew. Interesting stuff from you. I notice you are charging an EV out of hours, so I think that will be quite big and make it easier for you to hit the Powermove target. Just a thought?

Yep it totally does

We’ve not had a failure of the meter readings (yet) but I’m alarmed to read about the many cases when this has happened. I would be very frustrated having inconvenienced ourselves for a small reward only to find the system for getting meter readings to the right place at the right time had failed. Knowing that this can happen is enough to put me off wanting to take part in future.

If I were OVO I would want to do something about this urgently - justifiably frustrated customers is a bad thing. The obvious answer is to assume in the customers’ favour when the fault is with the supplier. I realise it is probably outside OVO’s direct control but that’s all part of being a retailer - they should pass the cost on to the faulty party.

Setting up a system to pay a reward to customers and then claiming, without any evidence in the online account, that the customer has not met the terms of the reward is not good behaviour and creates customers who think they are being conned.

It’s interesting, I kicked this lot off when I’d just failed to make to the top tier and couldn’t see how I could do more than I was. The whole idea of this is great and getting that understanding about using your power outside of peak times is spot on. I’d always made the top tier and struggled to understand why I hadn’t this time, but it would appear the only way I’d get to the top tier is to maybe switch the fridge freezer off 6-9, and I’m not sure of the overall wisdom of that, or maybe use more electricity out of hours, but that would seem ridiculous. The only person who fed back that this is easy was the guy that charges his Electric Vehicle outside 6-9, and clearly he is going to be putting a far higher burden on the grid overall anyway. Not sure what I achieved with this, but warm thanks to all of you that took the time to feed back on my original post. Cheers! Nick in Worcester

I disagree, it is a con because OVO are selective with the truth. If a user meets all the criteria for energy saving between certain hours and has, up until then, been told that their Smart meter is operating correctly and is then told that OVO can’t access the information then the user is being deprived of a refund which is rightly theirs. i.e. being overcharged. I have been with OVO since the days of Atlantic Power - they were an excellent company, refunding long term customers. Then they became OVO who paid good interest on positive balances on accounts - that has all gone since the absorption of SSE domestic accounts. It has been downhill all the way and shows no signs of changing direction.

Unless I've used the washing machine and dryer I usually turn my fridge/freezer off between 6 and 9pm. During that time the fridge temperature will rise from 4 to 7 or 8c and the freezer section from -18 to -13 or -14c. Both sections rapidly return to normal and I've never noticed any problems with the contents of either.

Daily usage seldom goes above 4kwh, unless, of course, I've used the tumble dryer or been baking bread! 

Again… How is this a con or “selective truth”? As we’ve already pointed out, you don’t lose anything and it doesn’t cost you anything in these cases - you simply don’t get the key to unlock the treasure that’s in the chest. That’s literally the only penalty, if you can even call it that.

The data has to reach OVO by 1pm the following day to allow enough time for processing. If it’s not there by the deadline, it’s too late and can’t be number crunched for Power Move.

You are NOT being deprived of a “refund” in these cases and this is absolutely NOT overcharging cuz you’re still paying the original rates on your contract anyway. If you have proof otherwise, please share it - otherwise it’s something I can easily smash out of the park.