Why does Power Move not include weekends?

I understand that Mon-Fri 4-7pm is peak - and that the idea is to encourage people to use less power at times when demand is greatest - my point is that the incentive to move usage away from that time window should mean that ALL off peak usage is counted when calculating peak versus off-peak consumption… right now there is no incentive to move usage out of peak weekday and into off-peak weekend - and I suspect a lot of people who are close to reaching the ‘reward’ target would actually have reached the goal if their weekend usage was included in the calculations. Just a thought … 

Its an interesting debate. Maybe OVO Energy will innovate the current Power Move over time so all power shifting counts towards the monthly target. I’ll be watching this space!

If OVO calculated the weekend usage into the equation, then EVERYONE would meet the 11.25% target monthly, unless OVO also includes the 4-7 pm peek time, in which case I don't think it would make a difference.  If you didn't use utilities during the 4-7 peek, 7 days a week, then the average would be roughly the same as M-F 4-7 pm.  You still need to use the same about of electricity.  As an example:  If you didn't do laundry at all during the week, and did it all on Sat - Sun except 4-7 pm, you would still use the same amount of electricity during the 7 day work week (Power Move - 7 dpw).  Now, if you do all your laundry on Sat & Sun (Power Move only Mon thru Fri), your usage for that period would go down.  The way that I do it is, I do my laundry M - F,  EXCEPT during the 4 - 7 time frame.  This pretty much guarantee 's me that I will meet my daily quota of less than 11.25% daily !!!!!  Confusing, I know !!!  😆😵😵😵🤔🤔🤔😄😄😄 🤑🤑🤑

It’s a good point, well made! However, I suspect if weekends were included the target would be lower, because the peak time would be a smaller proportion of the total time. For example, 12.5% is 3 hours out of 24 hours, so the original PM target of 12.5% effectively challenged us to use electricity evenly throughout the 24 hrs! - which is what would be best for generators. However, 4-7 M-F is 15 hrs out of 168 hours total in 7 days - 11.2%!

The part of Power Move that you can't see is DUOS - Distributed Use Of System - charges. These are charges levied by the DNO (Distribution Network Operator) depending on the time period that the utilities suppy power to their customers. From 4pm-7pm on weekdays is the Red period, the DNOs charge about 9p/kWh. Amber time is 1.7p and Green time (0-7, 23-24) is 0.05p. There is no Red time at weekends. There is therefore no financial reason for Ovo to include weekends in the Power Move calculations because they are not penalised with high charges then.

The golden rule of contracts (DNO to Ovo and then Ovo to Customer) is that they must be back-to-back otherwise there is a financial risk somewhere. Ovo can only afford to pay the monthy discount if they save money by you not using during the Red periods. They don't save money (to pass on to you) if you use power 4-7 at weekends because they are Amber periods.

I hope that helps clarify the situation. For further reading look up DUOS Charges and Time Bands. Each DNO can have slightly different time bands. I've quoted from SSEN documents for the 2022 settlement.

Process is looking at the national grid, so weekend usage has far less demands from business use. So reduction in domestic use on weekdays is a factor that can be managed to smooth out the peaks.

I consciously turn every bit of power off Monday to Friday except my freezer. I use candles to see ipad to watch TV put my heating on two hours before. Its a bit of a faff and to be honest I probably am not prepared to do the same at weekends. I work all week so I'm happy to suffer it during the week and eat after 7pm but my weekends are for relaxing and enjoying my home. I have achieved the £15 discount for the last 6 months but now spring is upon us the goal posts are moving so I would opt out if weekends are to be included. 

Well l try my best. doesn’t always work sometimes l might achieve the hour ones. can be easy then the month ones. though l had email the other day and they said l did well for this month so have earned £3 towards my next bill.

There are no defined weekend peak periods. The majority of customers change their habits at weekends.  Some may cook a roast Sunday lunch, many will eat out on Saturday night or order a home delivery, I tend to do my laundry and cleaning at the weekend but times when I do these chores are random. 

I can't imagine it going down very well if hard working customers had to organise their Weekend leisure time for little return. No-one would take part.