What's this email about Power Move Flex?

No. So I went hunting: Power Move Flex | OVO (ovoenergy.com)

I’ve seen the many complaints, but the conclusion is phoney. Ofgem classes anything less than 1800 kWh/year as low usage for dual-fuel households or 2200kWh for all electric households like mine. I fall firmly into this category, using typically ~3kWh  per day or around 1100kWh per year, but I’ve had no problem meeting the PM target.

I maintain that there’s no particular correlation between usage levels and the ability to shift usage away from weekday peak times. It’s more a question of being prepared to change behaviour in order to reduce the monthly bill. For example, is it worth £10 or £15 a month to be able to watch television between 4 and 7PM, or nowadays between 6 and 9PM? People grumble about having to pay £14 a month to be able to watch at all ...

It will be interesting to see what this new scheme involves, if I’m lucky enough to be selected.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts @Firedog. I would love to take part in challenges like this, but I am stuck with a traditional meter for now due to meter location! 

The good news is that those selected can take part in both challenges to boost the rewards, which is good news. I will be keeping my fingers crossed you receive the email to participate! As always, keep an eye on places like junk folders in the chance that they can sometimes land there! 😊

I too am sceptical that it will make any difference to those who already can’t (or won’t) meet the current Power Move targets.

If they don’t understand that it’s not about reducing use but about about moving use from the current Fixed timeslots then I don’t see them doing any better with Flexible ie. Changing timeslots.

Particularly as it will take more effort keeping your eye on the ball of just when the timeslots are if they change each day.
(A-la Octopus ‘Flux’ tariff? I’m guessing that the similarity in name is no coincidence?).

I believe that we have identified over the past 6 months that it’s those who cook with electricty that have the best chance of meeting the PM targets, those who cook on gas struggle to meet them simply because they have no such big daily electricity use in peak time to move out of it.
That isn’t going to change by varying the target timeslots.

PS. I’m also a low user, I cook with electricity,  and I’ve met every one of the PM targets since I joined in November, and I appear to be doing even better with the 6-9 timeslot than I was with the 4-7.
Probably because cooking between 5-6 is easier, more natural, for me than waiting until after 7.
Pity the rewad has gone down.

Hi @Nukecad,

I think you raise some very valid points in that a behavioural shift needs more than a focus on numbers. As I pointed out previously, I can’t “participate” but still take part in my own way by making my own behavioural changes. I think it’s fascinating to understand how we can all work together to ensure a stable energy grid. 

I love to hear that you are benefiting from the timeslot changes. It’s good to hear feedback on what’s working for you and any discoveries you have made. Have you made any changes to the way you cook things with electricity? As an example, switching to an air fryer lowered my monthly cost as the time taken to cook meals drastically dropped between 15-20 minutes on average compared to a very slow-heating oven.

I am hopeful that a good pool of volunteers and members will be selected for the new Power Move Flex challenge so we can gather helpful feedback to share. I enjoy reading the conversations that everyone has, and I learn as much as anyone new ideas to improve my usage.

Keep going with the feedback and insights 😊

Yes Air Fryers are great energy savers, I wouldn’t be without one now.

My latest energy saving change to cooking with electricty?

Thermos cooking.

You can cook rice, pasta, diced veg (including diced potatoes), etc. by putting them in a vaccum flask, adding boiling water (from a kettle), and leaving for about 20 minutes.

A wide mouth flask will also take larger things like baby potatoes or eggs with no problem.
If you pick the smaller potatoes they will fit whole in a normal drinks flask.

The only electricity used is that initial boil of the water.

Adjust your standing time as required for your quantities and food/dice sizes, you’ll soon get it how you like.

Basically if you can boil it in water then you can cook it in a thermos, as long as it fits.

Another bonus is that you don’t have to watch a simmering pan, a pan that’s steaming up your kitchen.

It’s a particularly good way of cooking rice once you get your quantitiles right so that the rice absorbs all the water. It makes great fluffy rice.
Wash rice first to remove most of the starch, unless you want sticky rice rather than fluffy rice.
Put some diced veg in with the rice before filling with boiling water for an easy vegetable rice. (If you prefer softer veg then you might want to pre-cook the veg or use tinned veg).

Tips:

• Season after cooking not before.
• Leave an air gap when filling the flask with boiling water, shake the flask, and lay it on it’s side rather than standing it up. (That prevents everything clumping in the bottom). You can give it another shake now and again.
• Spaghetti won’t fit most flasks, but it doesn’t fit pans on the stovetop either, just let it stand a couple of minutes in the boiled water to soften then you can push it down and fit the lid.
• Some things such as pearl barley, dried peas, or lentils can/will take longer than 20 mins, open the flask and fork some out to see if it’s done as you like. If not put the top back on and wait.
• You can always empty out the water and refill with new boiling water if it starts to get too cool, but I’ve never needed to do that.

If you want to use this to help with Power Move then have a second flask - you can have that full of the sauce, meat, etc, that of course you already cooked outside of the PM times.
At the moment I only have the one flask, so if I want to eat during the PM hours I’ll cook the sauce etc. earlier and just reheat in the microwave while I’m opening and draining the flask full of rice/pasta/whatever.

PS. If you don’t have a thermos then you can do the same kind of thing in any jug, pan, or bowl, it just cools a lot quicker so you may have to empty the water out and refill with another kettle of water.

Just to give an evening meal idea of the above:

Yesterday I did thermos cooked spaghetti, with air-fried miniature meatballs in a microwaved tomato and herb sauce.

Mini Meatballs: (You want at least a dozen of these per person).
Beef mince, salt/pepper to taste.
Shape into small balls about half the size of a grape, chill in the fridge.
Air fry 160-180C for 3-4 mins to brown. (Tip: I do mine in an old pie foil, keeps the fryer basket clean).

Sauce: (I made enough for 2 portions and froze one portion).
Tin of chopped tomatoes, dried herbs (I used Basil, Dill, and Marjoram), and a bit of garlic (powder or granules is fine), salt/pepper, I added a tablespoon of the vinegar from a jar of pickled onions just to give a bit extra sharpness.
You can add some water if you want a thinner sauce.
Microwave in a jug or bowl to boiling, stir then stand until ready to use. (The longer the better to let the flavours develop).

Spaghetti.
Thermos cooked as above.

I did the sauce and meatballs earlier in the afternoon, but they don’t take long and you could do them as the spaghetti is cooking, the fiddliest bit is rolling the tiny meatballs.
Or you could do the sauce and the meatballs the night before and put in the fridge
I started the spaghetti in the thermos half an hour before peak.
That gave it time to cook and a quick microwave of the sauce before PM time started.
(You could of course take it out of the flask and let it cool then microwave to reheat if you want to eat later).

When the spagetti is cooked - Drop the air fried meatballs into the sauce, add a knob of butter etc, if you want, stir and reheat in the microwave while you drain and plate the spaghetti.
Pour the sauce and meatballs over the pasta. (Sprinkle with cheese if wanted).
Enjoy.

So overall that’s 3-4 minutes of air fryer, call it 10 mins of microwave (probably only 5 but let’s overestimate), and half a kettle of water (less than 5 mins) to cook the whole meal.
Call each appliance 1kW, 20 mins max total = 0.333 Hrs, so that’s 0.333 kWh used. (About 9p on my current tarrif).
 

I’m beginning to doubt my ability to navigate this website, its many pages, forums and sub-sets (despite the fact that my last job demanded considerable IT skills?)   
I see from other replies that I may be confusing

-Power Move

Power Move Flex

( and that’s before I even try to grasp “Beyond” - or is it “infinity and Beyond “?)

so I may have posted my first ever contribution in the wrong place; so here it is again  

“I THINK I’VE CRACKED IT

I’ve only just been invited to join power move despite being an OVO customer for years, so I’m still getting over my hurt feelings as being last to get an invite to the party; maybe just to make up numbers. I’m also away in Spain for a holiday, so not really used any juice nor had a chance to compete for the prizes. But I return later today so here’s what I plan to do;  

1. Buy wooly hats and fleeces for the whole family and insist that they wear them from 6pm as I think my target savings time is 6-9pm and as all heating, including the central heating system pumps and motorised valves will be switched off. If I switch off at 5.59pm for three hours it will take till past bedtime to crank the temperature up again so there‘s no real point switching it again at 9,01pm but I’ll have to burn some juice after 9pm to comply with the rules  

2 Absolutely no TV, radio, WiFi or electronic devices from 6-9pm . Smartphones and laptops will be allowed on battery mode but the Router will be off so everyone will have to use mobile data. Lighting will be kept to a minimum so reading books and newspapers will be rationed; we’ll probably have a rota to share the reading lamp  

3 People will be allowed to shower as we have a pressurised gravity fed hot water storage tank not a Combi nor electric shower, but hair dryers will not be allowed and nor will electric toothbrushes.

4 Obviously we will have to rearrange meal times as traditionally we eat quite late; so, as people will probably also rearrange their sleeping times we will simply move everything forward by a few hours; breakfast at 5am, lunch at 10.30 and dinner at about 5.30.  That will take some getting used to, as here in Spain we eat late; last night’s Salmorejo, Fabada Asturianos, Postres y Queso started at 9.15pm and finished around 11. Although maybe as an occasional treat I will stage a midnight feast when home? In fact, as we may have to take long walks from 6-9pm to keep ourselves amused without TV, WiFi etc, that’s an idea worth floating to the family to keep them on board. 
4 Washing machines aren’t usually in action in the evening so that’s not an issue, and we already don’t have a tumble dryer, preferring to use a clothes line except when it’s raining heavily but I’ll leave a note on the door asking evening visitors not to use the doorbell between 5.59 and 9.01pm as that’s wired into the domestic supply. 
any further tips and hints are welcome; any ideas out there?

A

Yes the names can be confusing,

From what you say with the 6-9pm time then you are joined up to Power Move and not ‘Flex’ which is a different thing and has variable times.
(There has also previously been a ‘Power Move Plus’ just to confuse things a bit more, but that has ended for this year).

I see that you have found the Power Move group now, and my reply is now there.
Click this to go to it: