Octopus saving sessions coming 1st Nov

[dan_b]

No worries - the Germans ALWAYS have a word for those sorts of things!

[nowty]

Our nemesis Dunkelflaute.

[Fintray]

Just in from Octopus:


As one of the customers who joined Saving Sessions last winter, I wanted to give you an update on it, and ask for your help.

Saving Sessions’ future is in jeopardy.

This Friday 22nd November, the energy regulator Ofgem are deciding:

- Whether the service should continue at all
- How much reward customers should receive for taking part

The proposal they’re assessing would reduce the reward you receive by ~90%. Where previously, we typically paid you £2.25 per unit you saved, it would be more like 22p per unit instead.

Want Saving Sessions to stick around, and stay valuable? You’ve got 48 hours to have your say.

We'd love you to email Ofgem directly to tell them how you feel about your Saving Sessions rewards.

Email Ofgem



This button should open up a new draft email for you, already populated with the right email address and a template answer to send to (or of course, you're welcome to do it in your own words)!

If that doesn't work, email consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk
and copy in hello@octopus.energy with the subject line "Please save the Demand Flexibility Service."

Or...

Have your say on X (Twitter) – using @Ofgem, @OctopusEnergy and #SaveTheDFS.

[dan_b]

Blimey, that's quite the incentive cut isn't it.
Maybe they analysed the data and found people gaming the system somehow?

[nowty]

It’s simply because it’s becoming a commercial service.

No guaranteed test sessions and no guaranteed bunga bunga level payments. Also penalties for suppliers over or under delivering.

In past years we only had about 2 live sessions all winter. So the engagement with the public will be significantly lower and maybe to the point it’s not worth continuing.

We have had over 1GW of grid batteries recently outputting at difficult times and more are being added all the time. The max saving session benefit was circa 0.5 GW.

[AE-NMidlands]

As I use my battery to avoid import at any time other than the Flux cheap period I "saved" almost nothing anyway so it would be no great loss to me. However I did manage to export at a premium rate when they were most desperate for power. I wonder whether that bonus would disappear too?
A

[Stinsy]

Paying people to use less rather than paying generators to burn more FF seems like a no-brainer to me!

[nowty]

I've just received a slightly different email from Octopus,


Saving Sessions’ future is in jeopardy.

Tomorrow, the energy regulator Ofgem were set to decide:

- Whether the service should continue at all
- How much reward customers should receive for taking part

Moments ago, they rushed out their decision (a day ahead of schedule): approving a change that would reduce the reward you receive by ~90%.

They’ve arrived at the lower reward because that’s the sort of amount they pay a gas plant to turn on to cover the busiest time of day (it does vary - as would future Saving Sessions rewards). But it’s not a fair comparison – they pay the gas plants a lot of money “just in case”, as well as the per-usage costs. There’s no proposal to do the same for customers.



It seems to be starting next week from 27th Nov.
https://www.current-news.co.uk/neso-lau ... y-service/

[Moxi]

If they have rushed it out they were under unseen pressure so the only option left for the masses is don’t take part in future sessions- IF the grid ever gets close to a wobble they might have to reconsider their position- but I doubt it will get to that.

It feels like the game is swinging back to the old make / shift as much as you can game and limit your purchases of premium rate power.

Moxi

[nowty]

Official Notice from NESO,
https://www.neso.energy/news/new-look-d ... -next-week

NESO’s Demand Flexibility Service will go live from Wednesday 27th November 2024, enabling households and businesses to earn pounds, points or prizes in return for shifting their electricity usage during DFS events.

Two major changes to the service will see consumer households and small and medium sized businesses able to participate across the year for the first time, rather than just during winter months.

As winter margins have improved NESO is able to consider the long-term future of the Demand Flexibility Service outside of its original purpose as a winter only enhanced action outside the electricity market.

By adapting the rules of the service, NESO is now able to offer the Demand Flexibility Service on a year-round basis as part of the wider electricity market. Going forwards the service will directly compete with power generators such as gas power stations and wind farms. This change allows the service to operate across the year rather than only during winter months, providing greater opportunities for consumers and businesses to participate.


Saving sessions will only happen when there is little wind so its a complete compete with gas !
So much for reducing CO2 emissions.