Ovo Energy customer explains how ‘very small’ change has seen him save £160 on his energy bills

Mr Felton, from Burnley, Lancashire, has been taking part in the National Grid ESO’s Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) events, which allow eligible participants the opportunity to earn rewards for shifting their energy usage to off-peak times.

The money saver, an Ovo Energy customer, has signed up for the supplier’s Power Move Plus scheme and has saved £25.07.

Ovo said its Power Move and Power Move Plus customers have earned a total of £463,000 in the last month alone for moving their electricity usage to outside of the high-demand times and taking part in the DFS events.

Mr Felton lives in a four-bedroom, 1970s detached bungalow with an electric infrared heating system, and says if he simply turns the thermostat down, they save enough electricity to hit the target.

The household also opts to cook outside of the events, which last for around an hour and tend to happen in the evenings when the electricity demand is at its peak.

Mr Felton said: “I signed up to Power Move Plus to save a bit of money and to be a part of something bigger.

“I’ve earned about £25, which is a good saving for a very small behaviour change that didn’t inconvenience me at all.

“We have an electric infrared heating system so whenever there’s an event, we turn the thermostats down and that saves us enough electricity to hit the target.

“We also avoid cooking during the events but that’s about it.”

So far, Ovo customers have shifted more than 756,500 kWhs of electricity out of peak times, when the grid is more heavily reliant on fossil fuels, to periods when it runs on cleaner, greener, renewable energy.

According to Ovo, this means it’s helped avoid 64.6 tonnes of carbon, roughly equivalent to boiling the kettle 3.6 million times.

Power Move is Ovo’s year-round reward scheme, while Power Move Plus is Ovo’s Demand Flexibility Service initiative, which launched in November and alerts customers to shift usage during DFS-triggered events.

In the last month alone, more than 77,500 customers have been rewarded with more than £463,000 across the two schemes, Ovo said.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• Thousands of Utilita customers to get £150 discount on energy bills
• Energy bills to rise in January - Ofgem energy price cap will rise to £1,928 a year
• Households warned they could face fine if they refuse to replace gas boilers with heat pumps

The highest amount a Power Move Plus participant has saved individually so far has been £28.14, with the top five per cent earning an average of £7.13.

The Power Move winter challenge rewards customers with £15 a month if they use 13.50 per cent or less of their electricity during the peak hours of 4pm to 7pm on a Monday to Friday.

This roughly equates to an average household moving three dishwasher loads, or four loads of washing each week from peak to off-peak times.

Mat Moakes, Chief Commercial Officer, OVO, said: “Our customers are collectively saving hundreds of thousands of pounds and cutting carbon by shifting their electricity usage out of peak times.

“To really make a dent in bills, cut carbon and balance the grid, we need to reward long-term behaviour changes.

“Power Move maximises rewards and runs all year round, on top of the DFS scheme, to incentivise people to shift electricity use out of peak energy times. Consistent, collective action will make the biggest impact overall.”