New Gas & Electric Co. "OVO Energy"

OVO seems to be the cheapest tariff, both green and non-green, but their site is full of lots of meaningless fluffy words about where their power comes from. For example:

We buy our electricity from both renewable and non-renewable sources. A lot of our electricity comes from the national grid.

We also purchase electricity directly from renewable generators, including wind turbines and landfill gas. Landfill gas generation converts the methane given off by waste disposal facilities into electricity. If it wasn’t captured, the methane would escape into the atmosphere. Methane’s effect on global warming is more than 20 times greater than CO2’s, so landfill gas generation is a good idea.

Well, given that they're a new startup with few assets they'll find that all of their energy comes from the national grid. But you don't just buy electricity from the national grid, any more than you buy electricity from the plug on the wall. You buy electricity from someone putting energy in.

And the nice fluffy description of landfill gas is very nice, but it doesn't say how much of their output it is. 10%? 1%? 0.1%? 0.01%? They're supposed to publish a breakdown of their energy sources, but I can't find one (it may be that they only need publish this after a year, but they must at least know the initial figures)

I've emailed them about this and no reply. Don't suppose anyone has managed to get any more information out of them?

Added: I found some charts at fuelmix.co.uk:
Normal tariff:
http://www.fuelmix.co.uk/calc_fuelmix.html?go=fuel_mix&db=electric&supplierRef=2901&fuelMixGroup=OVO_2008
Green tariff:
http://www.fuelmix.co.uk/calc_fuelmix.html?go=fuel_mix&db=electric&supplierRef=2902&fuelMixGroup=OVO_2008b

but I'm not sure I believe them given the dates are 07-08 when OVO didn't exist. (And a lot of nuclear waste for a 100% green tariff). The non-Green tariff looks rather too similar to the UK average:
http://www.fuelmix.co.uk/fuel_mix_info.htm
so I'm not convinced.

TonyHoyle wrote: »

I signed up with these as they worked out as the cheapest tarifs (and wanted a smaller company as EDF had managed to F.. up migration to them 3 times in succession, so I gave up on them).

Now they tell me they're going to take out £234 a month from my direct debit! That's an *insane* amount. And they won't review the amount until next april. I queried it and they told me that was correct :eek::eek::eek:

Given that on the 'standard' tariff I'm on Eon I'm only paying £70 a month (and that covers winter too) it means they're trying to build up credit of over £1000 before they even considering reviewing it (more like £1500 once the lower tariffs are taken into account).

Just a warning. If you're going with them *check your emails*.

I've told them I'll cancel unless they set it to something more reasonable.. luckily they aren't my provider yet and I caught it early enough. I can't think of a legitimate reason why a company would want to take that much money off their customers upfront.

That is alarming! I was considering a move to OVO New Energy Plan - Dual fuel, but after reading this, I have emailed them to see if they can predict what my initial monthly DD would be. I'll let you know what they say - assuming they are able/willing to do this.

What are other people's experiences with OVO?

TonyHoyle wrote: »

I signed up with these as they worked out as the cheapest tarifs (and wanted a smaller company as EDF had managed to F.. up migration to them 3 times in succession, so I gave up on them).

Now they tell me they're going to take out £234 a month from my direct debit! That's an *insane* amount. And they won't review the amount until next april. I queried it and they told me that was correct :eek::eek::eek:

Given that on the 'standard' tariff I'm on Eon I'm only paying £70 a month (and that covers winter too) it means they're trying to build up credit of over £1000 before they even considering reviewing it (more like £1500 once the lower tariffs are taken into account).

Just a warning. If you're going with them *check your emails*.

I've told them I'll cancel unless they set it to something more reasonable.. luckily they aren't my provider yet and I caught it early enough. I can't think of a legitimate reason why a company would want to take that much money off their customers upfront.

I can only surmise it is a mistake - it surely cannot be policy?

What information did you supply to OVO to enable them to set their DD?

Could they(or you) have got it wrong?

Anyone changing now will see them asking for high DDs as they want you to be in credit whereas I say they should take 1/12th of the annual charge from whenever you start.