Ready for the Power Move summer challenge?

That’s really the point - to promote change to lifestyles to try and reduce the demand for electricity when it’s most planet-unfriendly. If we all did what we’re asked to, we could help flatten the peak shown in the picture. It shows the GB consumption of  gas  and  coal for electricity generation yesterday, peaking after energy production from wind and solar power wanes in the late afternoon. 
  

The change from 4-7 to 6-9 is only a shift of one hour, because of British Summertime.

Not achievable.

I switched off the immersion on 1st July and switched on the oil boiler again. using the immersion during the summer months was the only reason Power Move became useful to us. As I have said before, it seems daft to get a reward for doubling the electricity consumption. If the grid had been decarbonised it may have made some sense but as it hasn’t, it makes none at all.

just had oil at 56p per litre so it’s much cheaper to heat hot water with oil anyway.

Very suspicious that OVO has no meter smart meter readings for 30th June or 1st July. My scam detector is twitching.

Power Move is entirely voluntary, your choice to try or not.
It doesn’t cost you anything to join.
It doesn’t cost you anything to take part.
Nobody is taking anything from you, just the opposite.
You may get a reward - great if you can.
You may not get a reward - but you haven’t lost anything by trying.

Where do you see a scam there?

Meter readings and usage data (two separate sets of figures) for 30 June are retrieved on 1 July. This just happens to be the first day of a new quarter, when most of 30 million smart meters all have to be updated with new tariff data. That is an awful lot of data to be pushed around the DCC’s network, so it’s not surprising that routine stuff like usage data takes a bit longer than usual to turn up in your account. 

There was no sign of usage data for 30 June in my account when I looked at 02:00 this morning 2 July. By 08:00, they had turned up. No scam involved, I assure you - and anyway, 30 June’s data didn’t count for the spring challenge.

Likewise, if you’re cheating the system, then you’re only scamming yourself.

We’ve said this before, but deliberately inflating your usage just to make targets easier to hit is cheating and you’re only cheating yourself anyway by doing it - because your wallet will get punished more than rewarded.

I have just crunched my data for the first six months of the year and indeed the challenge is getting harder.

The percentages relate to:

• Winter percent: The amount of my energy consumed between16:00 and 19:00 on weekdays
• Spring percent: The amount of my energy consumed between18:00 and 21:00 on weekdays.
• Summer percent: The amount of my energy consumed between18:00 and 21:00 on weekdays compared to the whole week usage.

So for June I would have achieved the best tier on the Winter and Spring challenges but only the middle tier (£5 credit) on the summer challenge.

I have been trying to use my power intense appliances at the weekends already. Would this not have been included then? What we need is a timetable making it clear as to when you really want people to use these. I find your indications very misleading 

Weekends have been excluded completely from Power Move up until now. As of yesterday, 1st July 2024 however, they are now included and considered Off-Peak all day. That’s a perfect time to use power hungry stuff.

The times to AVOID using power hungry stuff are currently 6pm to 9pm Weekdays i.e. Monday to Friday. Please note that this may change for the Autumn Challenge that’ll start in October.

Have a look at Carbon Intensity - OVO Energy. You can use the chevrons to scroll a couple of days ahead, to see when it’s best to use power-hungry gear. Pick low green columns, but steer clear of the 6-9 slot on weekdays.

I've already hit 10.75% in the challenge...was much easier than expected.