MSE News: Octopus and Ovo to pay customers to reduce their electricity use at peak time this winter

MSE_Petar

Two of the largest energy firms in Great Britain, Octopus and Ovo, will pay households up to £100 to cut their electricity usage during peak times this winter, as part of new schemes aimed at preventing power shortages. The schemes will run from 1 November to 31 March 2023, though the exact details of how they'll work are yet to be confirmed. Here's what we know.

Read the full story:
'Octopus and Ovo to pay customers up to £100 this winter to reduce their electricity use at peak times – what we know so far'

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MalMonroe

Well I'm with Octopus and - first requirement, you need to have a smart meter. We don't have one. Don't want one either.
Second requirement - don't use electricity during the evening peak time between around 4.30pm and 6.30pm 

We only have an electric oven (not from choice but because we live in a council flat that was only allowed to be all electric for H&S reasons when we first moved in so we had to get rid of our fabulous gas oven and buy a brand new electric one - but we do prefer gas ovens).

So it's all just rubbish for us - or we could just have sandwiches for tea on those days. Even so, we'd want a hot cuppa, surely. . . and maybe even a hot pudding?

I love perks as much as the next person but have fallen at the first (and every other) hurdle with this one. Thanks again, Octopus.

[Deleted User]

What do you expect them to do if you refuse a smart meter?

And you've misunderstood the rest of it.  It's not "don't use electricity between 4.30 and 6.30" it's "use less electricity".  It wouldn't be possible for you to cook at 6:31?  Or boil the kettle at 4:29?  Maybe even only boil it once in the two hours rather than multiple times - that's already less electricity and would qualify you.

I think you weren't really the target for this scheme then.

I worry for any sort of innovative scheme if this is the response it gets - "OMG you are forcing me to eat only sandwiches".

EssexHebridean

This could be a definite incentive to me to hurry up our SM installation request. Great to finally see something in place that might begin to convince some of the tinfoil hatters of the possible positive attributes of SM's as well! 

Having read the detail (such as is known currently) I suspect we simply wouldn't be able to make the required cuts actually as we would usually use so little during those peak times anyway - we literally wouldn't have 0.7kWh use in the first place, never mind being able to reduce by that much! If we were people who would usually use energy in that timeslot though it would certainly be a good incentive to rearrange things just a little to se if we could hit the target reduction amounts. 

tripled

MalMonroe said:

Well I'm with Octopus and - first requirement, you need to have a smart meter. We don't have one. Don't want one either.
Second requirement - don't use electricity during the evening peak time between around 4.30pm and 6.30pm 

We only have an electric oven (not from choice but because we live in a council flat that was only allowed to be all electric for H&S reasons when we first moved in so we had to get rid of our fabulous gas oven and buy a brand new electric one - but we do prefer gas ovens).

So it's all just rubbish for us - or we could just have sandwiches for tea on those days. Even so, we'd want a hot cuppa, surely. . . and maybe even a hot pudding?

I love perks as much as the next person but have fallen at the first (and every other) hurdle with this one. Thanks again, Octopus.

I take it you're being facetious? You did have me for a moment there.

Spoonie_Turtle

I would be interested to know whether it's only open to people who have smart meters from the beginning, or if eligibility is on a rolling basis (e.g. once we have X weeks' usage data you can qualify for the next one).

MalMonroe said:

So it's all just rubbish for us - or we could just have sandwiches for tea on those days. Even so, we'd want a hot cuppa, surely. . . and maybe even a hot pudding?

Slow cooker?  Leftovers from yesterday reheated in the microwave?  Flask for a cuppa, if you've decided boiling a kettle during the timeslot is unacceptable?  Hot pudding after the timeslot (or microwaved to warm it up)?

badger09

@MalMonroe

What a strange reaction. You make it sound as though Octopus has singled you out and devised a scheme specifically to exclude you. They haven’t. 

FWIW we won’t benefit either. We do have Smart Meters very recently installed because I envisaged more TOU tarrifs being introduced. However, we use very little electricity during those hours. Short of turning off fridge freezer, router, etc, it isn’t possible for us cut consumption.  

But hopefully many households will be able to shift their usage a little, easing the load on the grid & saving a few £s at the same time. 

MWT

Happy to see schemes like this getting launched.

We will not benefit directly as we use zero electricity during that time period having already taken the steps necessary to shift our load out of the peak period.

MrsPorridge

I'm with OVO but cannot have a smart meter.  They have tried twice to fit one, but there is no signal that they can lock onto.

QrizB

badger09 said:

FWIW we won’t benefit either.

Nor will we, our usage looks something like this:

Not much scope to reduce the evening use!

bagand96

MalMonroe said:

Well I'm with Octopus and - first requirement, you need to have a smart meter. We don't have one. Don't want one either.
Second requirement - don't use electricity during the evening peak time between around 4.30pm and 6.30pm 

How else would they be able to monitor hour specific electricity use if not with a smart meter?