Are you actually part of the trial @cmccullie ?

It was by invitation only I understand and so just taking part won’t get any updates

The main forum group is here https://forum.ovoenergy.com/groups/shift-and-save-trial-157

I can’t find you in the Shift & Save trial group on the forum. That would suggest you might not be part of the trial but it’s not enough by itself.

I have just received a notification of a shift and save session this evening (Monday 9th jan) 6-7pm

Received email inviting me to join trial which I filled in, since then I have had 3 emails telling me S&S  sessions were happening.

Just registered for S&S forum, when reading Q&As it says I will be notified my performance after each trial, this has not happened, no communication from OVO 

I have taken part in 2 trials and just accepted another one this morning, I have had no feedback from OVO regarding previous trials.

Snap. 

I spoke to someone via the online chat too in December about it.

1st answer was - it doesn't start until the New Year ...   so I sent a screenshot of my emails asking me to apply for the Specific trails !?!  

Then I was told Sorry thinking of something else, ok,  if I'd been successful (in applying in time for that days trial)  I'd get an email later in the week telling me how I'd done. 

Completed now 3x trial dates and no feedback / emails at all yet. 

That does sound strange. Perhaps we can flag @Emmanuelle_OVO to review for you

I've only been invited to 2 with a third one to sign upto for this evening.

For the sake of earning 10p it isn’t worth the aggravation.

If there is some disparity with which addresses get the invite it could explain why Ive not had an invite for my main address where I actually use electricity yet but I think some of the feedback has gone astray despite earlier promises for that to be resolved.

Gaz

I'm certainly coming to the conclusion it's not worth it at all too. 

Congrats on being accepted to the second trial. 

I would think of the trials as a one way street - you’re helping trial something new (and hopefully getting paid for it) and Ovo need real world data from participants, that’s about it. I get the impression the trials team are a relatively small group trialling lots of things at once so there isn’t a lot of capacity for feedback. 

But it’s all good, this is how we learn new stuff! 

Just received an email this morning. First saved nothing, second unplugged what I could turned lights off, but laptop screens etc had to stay on because I was working- only saved 10p!!!

Apart from plunging the home in darkness switching the lecce off from the distribution board - is it worth it?

I agree about the size of the team and that this is part of a learning exercise; however we are dealing with a large commercial organisation here, not an amateur organisation,

A number of posters here rightly complain of minimal or even no feedback at all and and an overall lack of communication about this which needs to be addressed. 

I am also part of the trial this evening and received the notification this morning.  Lack of proper notice and the time it’s happening make this tricker to do this time, but I’ll give it a go as I do see the longer term benefit this could bring, but OVO can you make a stronger effort on your comms please. 

I did get feedback for both the first 2 trials. I managed to save something on the first trial and got 18p credit. Wahoo! But, I didn’t really understand how it worked. I thought that I literally shifted some of my higher energy usage to another part of the day. I didn’t realise that they were challenging me to use less than 2.2kW over a 2 hour period and, if I managed to restrict usage to 1.2kW then I would have received £1 credit. That’s quite a tough task as our house seems to use 0.4kW per hour when we’re asleep.

But, now I understand that, I can see that today’s challenge is much more achievable. They’ve given a target of 1.7kW over a 1 hour period. Unfortunately, I didn’t read the email in time ‍♂️

I wonder if these trials are under-resourced within Ovo. It feels as though we have been keen but not well directed.  I tried really hard to achieve the 12.5% reduction prescribed under “Power Move” and on joining the Forum looking for some help, learned I had been invited to take part in another trial “Shift &Save”.  I have heard nothing more and have no idea whether I ever will. I am becoming a little underwhelmed!  

In your sig, you detail your solar installation details.

So really you shouldn't even be taking part in the trial.

I guess with the sun going down before the trial  it doesn't make a huge difference where people might be running from the grid until later, after the trial.

I bet there are those who simply run from battery to take money from the trial whilst the trial slot is being monitored for usage and then use the same amount of power recharging the batteries or hedging their bets and doing it the next day if it's not been sunny.

How on earth did they let that slip through?

LOL

Gaz

You seem to be under the impression the trial is to make you money.

The trial is to see if people can move energy usage away from the peak period.

The number of people participating and legitimately getting rewarded for their efforts seem very few based on what many posters here describe.

The idea of sitting in the dark with everything turned off is no different to what would happen in the event of a power cut. It would be highly amusing if all those stupid enough to turn everything off to make money out of the trial are identified as needing no power during peak periods and selectively cut off when the actual real world need to save power kicks in.  The clear intention is to charge more for peak time power and less for off peak, hence the trial to see how successfully people can use power outside of the peak period rather than during it.

There were a number of criteria for people to take part in the trial, it's a real shame so many seem to think it's all about making money rather than saving on peak usage.

Gaz

Gaz

Surely if someone has batteries for solar storage its ideal to use them to shift their usage away from peak hours by switching to battery power. 

OK it's an incentive to see what we can save during the peak hours but what will it achieve we have got use to having and using power hungry items for whatever reasons.

No matter what happens we are still going to pay a premium for the electricity and gas.

Look what happened when the petrol went up everyone complained but we are still paying.

Yes, it is the ideal solution but thevterms of the trial  state that no solar PV, or other microgeneration, or battery systems could be used and properties with them were therefore exempt from the trial.

For me, if I wanted to cheat I could just charge the EV during the peak period every other day then on the day of the trial charge at a different time.

To avoid that kind of scam they changed the criteria to having to save beyond the figure they give you before any payment is made.

Remember, the trial is to see what the consumer can do to save power at peak, not what their kit can do.

In theory though,  if someone is running off grid during peak hours there would be no import and therefore nothing to save with the target being small so to cheat using a battery would take a bit of manipulation to get a certain amount of usage each day during peak which could easily be beat so would encourage people to maximise peak usage for 50% of the time then the average over 10 days might be beatable enough to save a couple of kWh but the effort required to con a couple of quid out of the trial isn't worth it.

Irregardless of criteria to be in the trial and if it's viewed as silly or not,  it only achieves anything if everyone takes part in the trial in a fair and consistent way with how they might behave if they felt they could shift some useage to off peak. 

Let's all do things fairly and accept the data has gone to good use, if we dont see how many pennies we made it doesnt really matter but is useful to see if we can do more. 

If we can do more then why wasn't more done in the first place?

Perhaps people need to get an understanding of why we are doing it in the first place.

Gaz

Well I’m going to give it another go this evening. I have a heat pump (from another trial, for which I am truly thankful) but it does use a fair old whack of electricity. To save the 1.5 kWh I’ve been given as a target I’ll turn it down at 6pm and back up an hour later. The house will take a while to get back to temp but that’s ok with me. Won’t use the oven then either.

Re why wasn’t this done in the first place? There are an awful lot of things that could have been done by now…. Insulate the housing stock, upgrade the electricity grid, invest more in renewable energy, dare I say including nuclear power, don’t build HS2 etc etc

They have only run 2 trials with a 3rd tonight!  Think you need to give them a chance to collate a lot more data!

You’re right Gaz. The impact of the £1 credit isn’t going to make any difference to the average household compared with today’s bills, but it is an incentive, nevertheless. I’m interested in saving peak time usage and I think they’ve made a good attempt at trying to translate any achievement into something tangible. Perhaps if they get enough interest they could get some kind of dashboard with achievements / leaderboards on it - really try to get Customers involved.

Hi @cmccullie - safe to assume you accepted the invite for yesterday’s S&S event? If you have, I’d expect you to hear if you hit the target or not the day after an event. Have you received anything? 

Over a day has passed since yesterday’s trial and no feedback. 

A bit of a pattern emerging.