Power Move Plus- Thought the payment was £6 for achieving target?

  • 20 November 2023
  • 16 replies
  • 359 views

Last Thursday our household joined into an attempt to meet a less than 1kW target between 18:00 and 19:00. The email stated that if we signed up and achieved the target we would be credited with £6.00 to our account. So, game on! 17:45, made two hot drinks, filled a bath, turned everything off, lite the candles in the bathroom and settled down with the bubbles and a good book for one hour and five minutes of relaxation. We were drawing less than 0.25kW for the hour - credit from OVO, £2.56. Isn't inflation tough, in the space of a couple of days our £6.00 had devalued by nearly 60%!!! Thanks OVO team for your marketing farmyard. On the upside - the bath, bubbles, tea book and company were great; I can't wait for the next invitation 😜😁

Jeffus 8 months ago

On Power Move day, switched everything on standby off, sat in dark for 1hr, only fridge/freezer on, got a credit of 99p.  Won’t bother again.

OVO didn't design the Power Move Plus scheme.

It is the repeat of the trial nationwide scheme that was deemed a success last year that shifted 350MW of electricity.

https://www.nationalgrideso.com/industry-information/balancing-services/demand-flexibility-service-dfs

 

It is basically a trial of a quick response emergency demand reduction scheme.

It won't suit everyone, particularly those with low usage anyway during the peak hour and some of those using Power Move which is OVO specific.

The marketing could be clearer. The £3 per  kWh headline needs better context. Many users will save less than  £1 in a single 1 hour session.

When OVO give out the target kWh it would be useful if they provided some target £ figures for savings to avoid any potential confusion.

Everyone who takes part is helping even if their immediate financial reward is low. So personally I am not disheartened if I don't save much immediately.

If the country can limit the emergency peaks, we can all save longer term. Net zero electricity transmission and distribution upgrades are projected to cost 10s of billions of pounds all of which are going on our bills. If the national grid etc are confident we will reduce our usage in an emergency then some of these upgrades won't be needed saving us money forever not just short term. I for one would like to see increases in standing charges which fund upgrades kept to a minimum if I can help it.

Many of the changes we need to make are not going to save us lots of money if anything in the short term

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16 replies

And there you go, a Customer who tried even harder than me to get rewards, and only gained £2.56!

What a farce created by OVO.

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Actually, it’s £3 per kWh below the target, not a fixed £6.

Please show us where it said £6 specifically.

Userlevel 2

You were lucky TonyB getting a 1kwh target. I had 0.5kwh and others I read about had 0.1kwh. However, I still had less than my target and earned 48p! 

It would be better if the Power Move Plus was an hour outside the current Power Move times.

Last Thursday our household joined into an attempt to meet a less than 1kW target between 18:00 and 19:00. The email stated that if we signed up and achieved the target we would be credited with £6.00 to our account. So, game on! 17:45, made two hot drinks, filled a bath, turned everything off, lite the candles in the bathroom and settled down with the bubbles and a good book for one hour and five minutes of relaxation. We were drawing less than 0.25kW for the hour - credit from OVO, £2.56. Isn't inflation tough, in the space of a couple of days our £6.00 had devalued by nearly 60%!!! Thanks OVO team for your marketing farmyard. On the upside - the bath, bubbles, tea book and company were great; I can't wait for the next invitation 😜😁

Well, at least it was "we" with the candlelit bath not just "I"! 

Userlevel 2

My understanding of the exercise was that the incentive was £3.00 per kwh achieved below the personal target.

So, in your case the  1 KwH target over the one hour event time meant that you could only ever achieve a maximum of £3.00 if you eliminated all electricity consumption during the event time.

 

I’m surprised you were quoted a £6.00 potential saving on a 1 KwH target .
In my invite for the event the only mention of the payment was :-

“….. and for every kWh you shift below your target, you’ll receive £3 towards your energy bill.” 

 

On that basis your £2.56 equates a saving of 0.85 kwh over the event - which suggest you used only 0.15 KwH.

 

If it’s any comfort I had a target of 0.2 KwH and achieved 0.09 - so my reward was 33 p -  

Im not surprised nor do I think it’s a farce - Ovo are following the national rules and are still running Power Move which is worth around 50p per day - 

 

The only question is why you received a £6.00 potential saving quote - that might be worth investigating further as to achieve that you would have had to have a target of 2 Kwh. 

 

 

On Power Move day, switched everything on standby off, sat in dark for 1hr, only fridge/freezer on, got a credit of 99p.  Won’t bother again.

Userlevel 7

As pointed out by @PJW we’re following rules from the ESO:

 

What is Power Move Plus?

 

This winter, OVO is offering customers even more chances to save. We’re taking part in the Electricity Systems Operator (ESO)’s Demand Flexibility Service to help customers reduce their bills this winter and reduce demand on the grid at peak times.

 

And are still running our own ‘powermove’ alongside power move plus:

 

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +2

On Power Move day, switched everything on standby off, sat in dark for 1hr, only fridge/freezer on, got a credit of 99p.  Won’t bother again.

OVO didn't design the Power Move Plus scheme.

It is the repeat of the trial nationwide scheme that was deemed a success last year that shifted 350MW of electricity.

https://www.nationalgrideso.com/industry-information/balancing-services/demand-flexibility-service-dfs

 

It is basically a trial of a quick response emergency demand reduction scheme.

It won't suit everyone, particularly those with low usage anyway during the peak hour and some of those using Power Move which is OVO specific.

The marketing could be clearer. The £3 per  kWh headline needs better context. Many users will save less than  £1 in a single 1 hour session.

When OVO give out the target kWh it would be useful if they provided some target £ figures for savings to avoid any potential confusion.

Everyone who takes part is helping even if their immediate financial reward is low. So personally I am not disheartened if I don't save much immediately.

If the country can limit the emergency peaks, we can all save longer term. Net zero electricity transmission and distribution upgrades are projected to cost 10s of billions of pounds all of which are going on our bills. If the national grid etc are confident we will reduce our usage in an emergency then some of these upgrades won't be needed saving us money forever not just short term. I for one would like to see increases in standing charges which fund upgrades kept to a minimum if I can help it.

Many of the changes we need to make are not going to save us lots of money if anything in the short term

lol I’ve to share my success of earning a mere 39p towards my energy for not heating my house or eating food between 5&6 pm. Doesn’t even cover the daily standing charge. Bill on Thursday said I owed £13.41. Used £1.49 in energy yesterday, yet today I’m showing over £17???? Absolute rip off

Userlevel 1

I have been earning £1.50-£3.00 per session via Uswitch Moneyback and I changed to them because I read that they were paying a higher rate.

They who?

Userlevel 1

I left Power move plus and changed to Uswitch Moneyback

I left Power move plus and changed to Uswitch Moneyback

Ah, thanks for that I’ll certainly look into it 👍

Userlevel 4

I have been earning £1.50-£3.00 per session via Uswitch Moneyback and I changed to them because I read that they were paying a higher rate.

Wow you must we moving 0.5-1kwh each time. We rarely use that much on a normal day.bglaf these schemes work well for some. They fo seem to be paying thr same rate of £3 per kwh that ovo have now moved to not the small rate the initially gave us.

Userlevel 7

Hey @superted_76,

 

Have you tried OVO’s grid balancing scheme, Power Move? The rewards are set by OVO, rather than the DFS like Power Move Plus.

 

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +2

I have been earning £1.50-£3.00 per session via Uswitch Moneyback and I changed to them because I read that they were paying a higher rate.

Wow you must we moving 0.5-1kwh each time. We rarely use that much on a normal day.bglaf these schemes work well for some. They fo seem to be paying thr same rate of £3 per kwh that ovo have now moved to not the small rate the initially gave us.

The test events have been £3 

The issue with OVO is that they bid a low £ per kWh for the live events.

So you would have been better off with one of the 3rd parties.

For example the Hugo Energy 3rd party was £5.50 and £4.49 vs OVO £1 and £3 for the 2 live events so far per kWh

Uswitch paid £3 and £4 for the first two live events per kWh.

Uswitch are offering a £10 bonus for anyone who signs up and takes part in one event, so that would be more than some people are getting with all events via OVO.

You would have to shop around and see which was the best for you, although it may not be easy to switch now. Some charge a small admin fee unless you donate your savings to a fuel poverty charity which is what we do with Hugo.

Hopefully ovo will bid more competitively for future variable events under the Demand Flexibility Service/Power Move Plus

 

 

 

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