Yes use more electric outside of peak hours, the % of use inside peak hours will then be less. Tbh the amount of hassle you're taking I'm not sure if it's worth it. 

This scheme is not aimed at reducing usage overall but is about moving usage away from peak times when clean electricity can't cope and other more polluting methods will be needed.

Sadly this scheme does not benefit everyone as it is not a reduction scheme but a power move scheme.

You have cut down so much on your electricity usage, I applaud you for that but also understand you have a need to do it. 

I do not believe Power Move is achievable for low electricity users due to the way it is calculated, I have never achieved it as a low user either. Upping your usage outside the peak hours is not the aim as you stated in your post. Power Move Plus is a better option for low users as you get a personal target rather than a percentage of averages. The reward in financial terms is not high but you can achieve a little bit which helps. 

One thing you don’t mention is using a kettle. If you don’t already, make sure you don’t use the kettle between 4 and 7. We manage this by boiling the kettle before 4pm and filling a flask so we can have a cuppa at 5 or six. 
Also, because they only average the weekday usage, ensuring your washing machine and showers are on a weekday might make a difference. 
But yes, the less you use the more difficult it is to reach the target. 
Next month it looks like they are doing graded rewards with £15 only for those reaching 11.5% dropping to £6 for 13% and only £3 for 14%. On that scale you will at least get £3 for your efforts. 

best of luck

Maybe a heated throw would be good while you work.  You seem to be doing all you can.

Why do thing after 11pm - or am I missing something.

I sympathise. I have tried the same things as you. I got to “13.6%” before I gave up. Quite simply the 13.5% is unrealistically small.

It is pitched at a level to make everyone try to save electricity, but because its virtually unachievable (unless you use a lot of electricity outside the 4-7pm slot) it can’t be done.

So it saves power for the peak usage for the National Grid, but pays out next to nothing to the hard pressed consumers.

It is essentially a con

Can you share some figures on monthly kwh usage so we can do the math and tell you what you need to use? With such low use, I assume £15 is a relatively large % of your total bill. 

Monthly kwh use?

Background energy use? - kW/Watts

Hi there,

      The techniques I use to drop my usage for just the required hour are:

1. Make sure laptop is charged up beforehand, then unplug it.
2. Turn the thermostat on the fridge (and freezer) down (i.e. to a higher number) for an hour beforehand, and then turn it back to normal  just before the period starts, so that it doesn’t need to come on for an hour. 
3. I do the same for the CH, but that doesn’t apply to you, but suggest you do heat the room a little using you electric heater before the start, so you don’t need to use it for the hour.
4. Turn the tele off, and watch something on my laptop, like BBCi or Sky News.
5. Use candles and a torch.
6. If you if have to leave on any lights, make sure that they are the modern LED, or fluorescent ones and not the old tungsten ones.

Using these techniques I can drop my usage by something like 95%, but only for an hour!!!  I use the Smartmeter to check this is working; I can get down to 30W or so, from my usual 500W plus.  Suggest you use yours to measure what each of your devices is actually using.  I have always managed to get some money for Power Move Plus events, but have never managed to achieve the Power Move targets, because I am a fairly low user, and have little demand that I can move.

    Rgds,

           Steve

I don't believe it is a con. It is aimed at people who use average or more electricity to get them to move their use and reduce carbon foot print. 

We can't reduce our usage any more due to work (our daughter works outside 7 days a week and her dog goes with her and is washed every day so produces a lot of washing between them) and a medical condition where we need the house well heated. But we can move when we do the washing and drying to during the day. 

We see this as helping the environment something we can't do by reducing our usage and helping us pay the bills a little. 

The two statements are a dichotomy. 

I think, as others have said, you misunderstand what power move is for. It isn't aimed at low usage users as you're already not using much as it is! We always meet the target this month our peak usage was only 5.65% we have an EV so it isn't charged at peak times, and we're a electric only household no mains gas so the only thing we normally do during peak time is cook and we try and avoid that if we can. Washing, dishwasher, tumble isn't done at peak times. Both the wife and I wfh quite often (I'm wfh today and we both will be tomorrow) but normally we're done by 4pm and 2 days a week there won't be anyone home from 4-7 daughters at gymnastics training until 8pm and the wife quite often works away 1 or 2 days a week.  I think you're basically making your life uncomfortable to try and meet an impossible target. 

Perhaps, I am a medium user.   But, running just one fridge, one freezer, one gas CH, one tele, one wi-fi modem, a couple of wireless phones, a doorbell, an oven clock, a microwave clock, a couple of laptop chargers, and a few LED and fluorescent light bulbs and not forgetting the smart meters themselves gets me up to about 500W.   At least I don’t have a heat pump, or electric heater, or immersion heater.  And, as I said it’s making sure the CH, fridge and freezer don’t actually run during the hour that allows me to get down to 30W.

     Rgds,

             Steve

Hi @AilitaV ,

That is a terrible situation to be in and you have my sympathy. I won't go on a party political rant but I am appalled by the scale of poverty that we put up with in this country.

It is easy to say try this or have you considered that but you are already taking extreme measures to reduce your energy consumption. Hopefully, Ovo are giving you the support you need to keep your bills as low as possible. Maybe @Tim_OVO or one of the other moderators could contact you to make sure that you are getting all the help that is available.

Take care, 

Simon

I do agree l find it hard to achieve sometimes the target. but when it is only for an hour l manage that some how. but when it’s longer don’t always achieve to reach targets. l don’t worry to much their is two of us living together so it helps a bit. have other things to worry about.

Answering a previous comment; I do think it’s a may be a bit of a con, especially Power Move itself!!! 

1. Power Move is difficult to achieve for small to medium users, because we have limited demand that we can easily move out side the 3 hour period. We typically do few washes of dishes and clothes in a week.  Large users should be able to achieve he target, but then they only get a small fixed amount of recompense (as compared with their total charge).
2. Power Move Plus is better, in that everybody should be able to get a reasonable percentage of their charge back, but I’m not sure that OVO are passing on much of the savings they actually get from the National Grid.  They say they are paying between £3 and £6 per unit saved; we are (only) getting between £1 and £3.
3. Doing the things I do for a Power Move Plus event would become tedious if I had to them every weekday, and some of them only work for an hour, or so.

I’d like somebody from OVO to come clean about how much they are actually get back from the Grid for our efforts.  I don’t mind making some effort for the good of the planet and for the countries power supply, especially if I get a small recompense for doing so, but I would resent it. if OVO were making more money out of it than me!!  Please !come clean OVO!!!

    Rgds,

           Steve

I don't work for OVO, I am just a customer like you.

For the first set of test events including today, suppliers are paid a fixed £3 per kWh and OVO are passing on all of that. Everyone gets the same.

There have been two live events. Here suppliers put in bids. For the first live event OVO only bid £1 per kWh. For the second live event OVO bid £3 per kWh. Again OVO passed on all that.

OVO haven't taken a cut on any event so far.

For the two live events other suppliers and 3rd parties like Hugo and Uswitch bid more than OVO, particularly in that first live event.

Hopefully OVO will be better at estimating what to bid in future events. Bid too high and you run the risk of not being accepted.

All the prices for all suppliers and 3rd parties  for every live and test event are in the public domain from the National Grid ESO.

Here is what ovo was paid for every event from the National Grid ESO

It is in £ per MWh rather than £ per KWh

Obviously you've found something on Google that I didn’t!!  I thought I was pretty good with it, but you’re better.   What you found is quite reassuring; pity OVO didn’t tell us about the bidding system!!!   But, what about the Power Move recompense???

The Demand Flexibility bidding is described on the National Grid ESO website for anyone interested. OVO provided a link to the National Grid  ESO website, I didn't use Google. The link is on the Power Move Plus Web page . It is the very first link on the page.

https://www.ovoenergy.com/power-move-plus

It is up to companies how they pass on savings. For example British Gas have been paying a minimum of £1 per event irrespective of how much you save, some suppliers take a cut, etc.

You just need to research and find the best offer for your individual circumstances, including 3rd parties like Loop, Hugo, Uswitch etc.

Power Move is different. This is an OVO only scheme, although if you look at other suppliers they are running a variety of their own schemes as well. Again you need to research and find the best one for you if you want to go to the bother of switching suppliers.

@Jeffusis talking about Power Move PLUS, which is part of the national scheme run by the National Grid, each ‘event’ is at short notice, only for a short period on a set day, and has targets set in kWh not percentages.

Power Move is an OVO scheme, and as far as I know they don’t recieve outside funding for it.
Power Move is an all month, weekday, scheme with a percentage target. (or 3 target ranges starting in January).

On the percentage side, I’ve done some testing which others might find interesting.

The big reductions that most people can make to meet the percentage targets are not cooking with electricity, and not using electric kettles, between 4 and 7 on weekdays.

Not using washing machines, vaccum cleaners, power tools, etc, in those hours is no hardship.
Turning off low wattage appliances such as central heating pumps, low energy lighting, even modern TVs and computers isn’t going to make a big difference. So turning those off should only be considered if you are very marginal on meeting the percentage target.

What difference does all that actually make percentage wise though?
I’ve compared it on several occasions.

To start with I myself am a low electricity user, I typically use less than 6kWh a day.

Ignoring Power Move and cooking, and boiling kettles as I like between 4-7 my daily electricity use during those hours is between 17.5% and 25% of daily usage.

Sticking to Power Move with no cooking or kettle use between 4-7 that drops to 3.5% - 6%.

So somewhere in between is a good compromise for me.

I will boil the odd kettle between 4-7 if I want to. (Although like others I usually fill a flask just before 4pm sometimes I forget or am out).
I will fully cook things earlier and then use the microwave to reheat them between 4-7.
I also batch cook things and freeze them to microwave later - defrost in the fridge or on the counter, that isn’t using any extra electricity to defrost them, - don’t use the microwave between 4-7 to defrost them or microwave from frozen.
And occasionally, I will cook a full meal between 4-7. The usage is averaged out over the full month so the odd 20% day is compensated for by the many more 5% days,

Doing the above generally keeps me within 6.5% and 10% each day, with the odd higher day, and so within the 13.5% overall target for the month. (I reckon I’m currently standing at 10.98% for December)

With the new targets from January 1st then I should still comfortably meet the 13% target for £6, but may have to be a bit more careful to ensure that I stay under 11.5% for the £15.

Yes it’s all there on the National Grid site!!  But, it’s a hell of a read!!!   On my initial investigation I found that the Grid were paying between £3 and £6, and OVO then offered me £1 for one event!!!   What was I to think???   If OVO are actually paying all they get from the Grid for DFS/Power Move Plus, then I am NOW reasonably happy.

Still would be interested to see the finances for Power Move!!!

Hello @AilitaV, Low users who are already struggling financially have my heartfelt sympathy. Today’s political climate in the UK has fostered a thoroughly inequitable energy burden on less well off folk. 

However, I do think OVO have come up with a good initiative in Power Move. I believe Power Move Plus is harder for low users to achieve (dropping usage by even a tiny amount of, say, 0.2 kWh for an hour is an impossible target if you’re only using 0.15 kWh anyway; let alone a target drop of 0.5 kWh or 1kWh, that really does not apply to low users). 
 

But Power Move is a different thing altogether, yes, difficult to meet for low users, but the proposition is that whatever your weekday usage is, be it small, medium, or large, ensure that during 4-7PM on a weekday (weekends and bank holidays don’t count, so we can relax a bit then!), you use no more than your average usage in any other 3 hour weekday slot. The “weekday” here means the 24-hour weekday, of course. So, if your weekday usage is, say, 1.2 kWh on average per day (which will be averaged out over the 19 weekdays of December…we’ve had 11 of them so far, 12 if you count today, Tuesday 19th), which is a phenomenally low usage, that averages out to 150 Wh over each of the 8 three-hour weekday periods, awake, asleep, day or night.  That is the target to aim for within the 4-7 slot to achieve the Power Move Target for December…in fact at 13.5% you can even be a tiny bit more generous and go to 160 Wh during that crucial 4-7 slot. So, even if you have such a really small weekday consumption (it doesn't directly matter for Power Move how much you use between midnight Friday and midnight Sunday), it might be possible to achieve the magic figure of 150-ish Wh over the 4-7 slot, say, 50 Wh per hour. There’s been some great advice here on the specifics of how to drop consumption even lower than that. My own feeling is that in modern times, a daily electricity usage of anything below 2kWh would be an impossibly big ask. Even with PV panels and a battery, dark UK winter days are, to say the least, difficult; something around 3-6kWh per day is more normal “low” usage I’m guessing. Don’t tell me you’re now going to say your daily electricity usage is below 2kWh?! Anyway, whatever your usage, Power Move works on percentages, not absolute values, so it’s for everyone.

Although weekend (and Bank Holiday) consumption doesn’t directly impact for Power Move purposes, indirectly it could have a bearing: if you’re doing tasks over the weekend, any electrical task no matter how small that could possibly be moved to a weekday (outside the 4-7 slot, obvs!!), then do that. Anything to make your 4-7 slot “look good”. 
 

£15 a month is a hugely important target for me to aim for, as I’m a low user and 50-odd free kWh of electricity a month is a major deal for me (or, put another way, cancelling out a month’s worth of the iniquitous standing charge). So I’m all for OVO giving me this chance. But, it’s not worth sitting in the dark or cold for, or risking your physical health and mental well-being over, and most definitely not during cold winter months when we can become debilitated and depressed without even noticing it. 
 

It would be great if you could give us, say, at least a week’s worth of your daily electricity usage (in kWh, not in £) including at least one weekend, and an idea of anything you might use 4-7 other than your one LED bulb you mention, your doorbell transformer (we used to switch off our doorbell transformer when we went to bed, but switching it off at 4PM might not be convenient), your fridge/freezer(s).  You mention a small electric heater, I hope that is enough for you to stay comfortably warm? If your heater is clicking in and out over your 4-7 period, that unfortunately would be enough to be a problem. Somebody also queried your kettle usage, is it an electric kettle you use or a gas hob kettle…you mention warming a hot water bottle. 
 

Finally, and I hesitate to say this, but mathematically if you were to spend an extra £5 monthly on electricity during a weekday (outside 4-7 of course), say switching your boiler back on from, say, 2 until 3.30 PM, then that would, financially speaking, be worth your while if it nudges your 4-7 weekday slot usage down under 13.5%. As you say, you’d have to be ultra strict in monitoring this or you’d just be spending an extra fiver for nothing. Except to be more comfortable of an evening, especially if you’re WFH! And yes, it’s counter intuitive to be burning more fossil fuel overall instead of less, and I am indeed lost in awe of your single-minded reduction in your usage (well done you), but the spirit of this exercise is to move usage outside the 4-7 slot weekday slot, which you wouldn’t actually be countermanding, If that’s the right word? Any rate, you wouldn’t be contravening the underlying rationale of Power Move, similarly for moving stuff out of the “invisible” weekends to visible weekday slots. 
 

We fellow consumers on this forum are rooting for you, if there is any way at all we can share experiences to help each other out, especially low consumption users, then rest assured we will do so…and all the very best of luck to you at this holiday time. Do let us know how you are getting on with that paper and pencil!  Your in-home display should help if you examine its daily, weekly and monthly figures using kWh (not £).  
 

EDIT:    And cheers @Nukecad, great post above…I’d typed my response here before I’d had a chance to read your post, exactly the sort of specifics that I was thinking of, expressed very well by you, with great advice from yourself…

Steve, I’m afraid you’re confusing the issue a bit. Your tricks for reducing consumption for an hour or so will certainly help to earn a reward for a Power Move Plus challenge. At the same time, you’ll be demonstrating that it is possible (a) to get people to reduce their demand for electricity at times when the grid might otherwise struggle to meet it, and (b) to get people to do this with just a few hours’ notice.

@AilitaV is having trouble meeting the Power Move target of getting her consumption between 4PM and 7PM below the (current) 13.5% threshold. This is a different exercise with a different purpose, and despite what several customers have written in this thread, it’s very much worth it for (particularly) low users. The £15 reward is enough to pay the standing charge for a whole household.

I’ve mentioned this often before: check how much electricity you’re using between, say, 2:30AM and 5:30AM on an ordinary day. This is likely to be a good indicator of your essential background usage, and it’s a good target to aim for for the 4-7PM slot. 

Not to forget, of course, that the Power Move challenge applies to weekdays only. It will be easier to meet if any power-heavy usage can be shifted from the weekend to, say, a weekday morning. That might be washing or hoovering, for example. It won’t affect your total consumption, but it would increase your chances of meeting the target for weekday 4-7PM consumption.

Last, a word about the hot-water bottles and electric blankets Ailita mentioned. To heat up 1.4l of water (the capacity of my hot-water bottle) to 60º takes about 80Wh of electricity. That’s enough to keep a small electric blanket going for four hours. You’d need less than a quarter of that just to get the bed nice and warm before crawling in. 

You haven’t mentioned hot water - where does this come from? Electric water heaters of any type are real energy guzzlers, to be used with extreme caution.

Sorry, if I’m confusing people.  I didn’t mean to!!!  I though was saying that I can get up to 95% savings for the odd hour long one off (Power Move Plus/DFS) events; it’s a little challenging, but for a couple of quid it’s just about worthwhile.   But, several of my techniques don’t work for much longer than an hour, and doing them every weekday would definitely be tedious, so achieving the Power Move target isn’t that easy for me, and I’ve never made it.  The situation and possible solutions for everybody will different.  I just hope that my techniques described in my previous contribution might be useful to others.  Is there any milage in people who have Smart Thermostats, slighting increasing their house and/or water temperatures from 3pm till 4pm (on weekdays), and returning to normal at 4pm, then no energy should needed to heat them for at least an hour???

Not too much hassle for me luckily, these are the things I always do by default. ^^; Which is why it’s so hard to lower it.

What’s Power Move Plus? And any reward is welcome!