Power Move vs Economy 7

Sorry @SteveCoach but I disagree. Economy 7 does nothing to reduce peak energy usage. It encourages overnight use, agreed but the issue we have in energy generation are the emissions from generating plant when ‘everyone’ switches on around 4pm and this peak extends until 7pm (actually often after 7pm).

E7 coupled with power move would make much more sense

Yes Economy 7 should be incentivised by prices for BOTH Day (including peak hours) and night usage.  Washing Machines, Dishwashers, Slow Cookers, Fridges, Freezers and any other appliances run at night would be cheaper.  Plus EV charging if not on an EV rate.  OK cooking the evening meal would be a problem but I guess the network can cope with that!

Economy 7 cannot be modified unfortunately. It’s not up to OVO to do that and erm… There’s the small matter of several million Meter Points that such changes would effect. How exactly are you going to reprogram the tens of thousands of still active legacy Traditional E7 Meters to support this for example? Or the HUNDREDS of thousands of Traditional Non-E7 Meters still in service?

And that’s before I really dig into the faults with this...

Yes traditional meters would be a problem.  Smart meters should be able to be adjusted by the power company or they are not very Smart! Perhaps more public info and “financial incentives” to use Economy 7 is what is needed to get people to use night time power.

Current Daty rates are a penalty and night rates are not cheap enough to be an incentive for those with no storage heaters.

All I am suggesting s that OFGEM and the suppliers do some Blue Sky thinking on this subject. The last time schemes like Power Move were used they were scammed and many made money from them by maximising their usage BEFORE the times to fool the system. FACT -

tbh all that would do is move the problem from daytime to night-time.

If literally the entire country shifts it’s usage to Economy 7 hours, there won’t be cheap Economy 7 rates. You’d instead create Economy 17. :(

That’s not going to solve anything unfortunately. It just covers up the real issue and makes it worse.

So the aim succeeded and people used less during peak - some possibly used more off peak but that’s missing the point. The vast majority of the initiatives being tested are all about reducing carbon emissions, which is not the same as reducing energy usage .. that test will arrive when more people get EV’s and the infrastructure will struggle to cope. 
I actually think that OVO’s Charge Anytime is a good example of a company using technology to benefit the environment by providing a system which automatically uses green energy slots to charge EV’s

Well you either need off-peak usage or not.  You can’t have t both ways!!

I seem to remember that the idea of rewarding customers who used less energy in the high-peak period arose as plans for controlled blackouts were being prepared before last winter. Cuts would have been used to limit peak demand at a time when energy supplies were precarious and storage capacity inadequate. 

It’s a bonus that the incentive reduces our dependence on fossil-fuelled electricity generation, but clearly a bonus worth paying for. 

SteveCoach Are you taking part in power move?

If not how have you deduced that it is 'nonsense.'

There are plenty of us who think that it is a good initiative, which if linked to an overall policy of trying to save energy is well worth doing.

Now what isn't a good idea is if Power Move is played like a game where shed loads of lecky are used during the day just so that people can get their grubby mitts on a tenner at the end of the month.

If however it is approached carefully with the correct level of intelligence and care it is well worth doing. It pays for around 25% of our electricity every month.

Give it a try!