[Beki]

@Actual I'm sorry this still hasn't been rectified. I'll chase this up as your account was sent multiple times. I'll get back to you soon.

[Actual]

My result is in for the Energy Shift for Monday 12/12 and I am pleased but frankly the result is ridiculous

This was my target...

12/12 Earn around £2.38, typical usage 3.92 kWh, reduce by 0.78 kWh target usage 3.14 kWh over 2 hours. Target per hour is 1.57 kWh per hour

This is the result...

You reduced your energy usage by 68% which means you'll get £12.84 credited to your account.

To achieve that I didn't even have to try.

We used fridge/freezer, gas central heating and normal room lighting with 2 computers and 2 TV's and an Xbox in use.

We did avoid using the electric oven and charging the electric cars which had been charged earlier in the day.

We even boiled the kettle for a cup of tea but 3 kW for 2 minutes was hardly gong to blow our target.

The national press is now starting to mention Energy Shift and they talk about saving but there is no saving happening here but we are earning becuase we are saving the country by using our electricity at another time when there is less demand.

Honestly my concern is that the reward here is too much. I was offered £2.88 and earnt £12.84. Surely this s unsustainable and if the earnings now drop will people stop taking part. Some customers are being offered 10p and earning 18p so what happens if there is a backlash and people start using MORE power at peak times?

[retrotecchie]

@Actual

If everyone saved 0.5kWh at the same time, that is the difference between having to bring in a high-cost near online additional generator, or not.

They had two coal fired generators at Drax on 'standby' for Monday but didn't need them in the end. Those buggers take about three hours from lighting the fires to start generating. In the event of an 'emergency' shortfall in supply, they can light up a CCGT plant in about 3 minutes. But the cost of doing that just to cover an hour of peak load runs into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. But....if there is a shortfall in capacity, the fines on the generating companies can be tens of millions.

So, if they can reduce the demand to the point where they can keep emergency generation from being needed, they save a big chunk of wad, so can afford to be 'generous' with the incentives. YOU make a bit of cash...the already excess profiteering generators don't have to eat into their already mega profit margins....so you are actually earning a mere pittance in the grand scheme of things.

We just saved £1,000,000. We can afford to dish out a few quid to the mug punters we are already vastly overcharging for their energy by asking them to lower their demand a smidgin.

Innit...?! Trust me, they ain't gonna do this out of the generosity of their hearts!

By the way, your usage and savings make my hair curl. I have a total energy budget of about 8kWh a day, or 0.3kW every hour, and that's with me at home all day every day and electric cooking. You were asked to reduce by more than I use in two hours. But then you do have an electric car...🚗👍😎

[Actual]

@retrotecchie

Some big numbers mentioned here...

https://amp.theguardian.com/money/20...pply-pressures

"Britons have saved almost £3m by using tumble dryers and other power-hungry devices at quieter times"

"National Grid said... £2.8m in savings over five test periods since the scheme launched last month."

"The Grid spent more than £27m paying power stations to crank up supplies at short notice on Monday."

But it is not savings.

It is compensation for not using energy at peak time.

https://amp.lbc.co.uk/news/uk-weathe...f-electricity/

"top households in the scheme have saved as much as £20"

I would just like to see some consistency for how it works as apparently I failed 3 events and have been grossly over paid for 2 events.

[retrotecchie]

@Actual

I know...without any transparency, or a published formula...how they work it out is a mystery to me.

[AJ22]

@Cosmo59 we tried the energy shift on the 12th. No heating just one lamp on and fridge freezer in the house and we still failed. Won't rush to do it again. We were cold but thought would do our bit. Not anymore.

[meldrewreborn]

Fridges and freezers are big consumers of electricity and wouldn’t suffer for being turned off for a couple of hours. But they don’t run their compressors at any set times and if they happen to run during the test period, then that could cause the failure.

[retrotecchie]

@meldrewreborn

I have actually switched off my freezer in the outhouse. The temperature in there is about the same as the freezer is calling for. Pointless running the compressor for nothing. Every little helps.

[Actual]

@AJ22

But did you fail?

Did you take your electric meter readings before and after?

What was typical usage and target usage and was it so small that you didn't realistically have a chance of achieving the target?

If you calculate what your hourly usage needs to be then you can set your IHD (In House Display) to show your real time Watts and you can then get an idea if you have reduced your energy usage enough to pass.

My Eon Energy Shift results have been incomprehensibly varied as I failed 3 events even though my calculations and real time IHD (In House Display) showed that I passed and for the 2 that Eon said I passed I was paid out a total of £19.21 which was almost 5 times what they said I could earn.

If you install the Bright energy app on your mobile phone then you can check your historical usage to 30 minutes and you can confirm if you really failed?

[meldrewreborn]

@retrotecchie

my freezer runs at -18c, with options to run at other temperatures. But food can deteriorate at less cold settings.