Utility Week

The Month in Review The Month in Review "There needs to be a proper inquiry … so that we never again have a situation where so many companies go bust and it is the British people who are left to pay the price, with such a dramatic impact on their bills." Ed Miliband, Labour shadow climate change and net zero secretary T he UK's largest ever study into domes- tic flexibility has suggested that it could reduce peak electricity demand by as much as 6.8GW – or 10% – by 2030. The CrowdFlex project involving Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO), Octopus Energy and Ohme, explored how 25,000 households responded to price signals to reduce or increase consumption. The project analysed the impact of endur- ing price signals provided to 18,000 custom- ers on Octopus Energy's static time-of-use tariff, Go, which offers cheaper electricity (5p/kWh) between 12:30am and 4:30pm each day, and almost 2,400 customers on its dynamic time-of-use tariff, Agile, which tracks wholesale market prices during each half-hour settlement period. It also looked at the impact of one-off signals to customers, who were rewarded for raising or lowering their demand during specified two-hour periods. Customers were notified in advance of "Big Turn Up" and "Big Turn Down" events, which took place at different times of day, with more than 19,200 taking part in the former and almost 400 in the latter. The final report on the first phase of the project, which analysed data covering a period of six months, stated: "Enduring Domestic flexibility could cut peak demand by 10% interventions of customers switching from a flat to a time-of-use tariff proved to be capa- ble of significantly reducing households' demand during the evening peak and sus- taining that reduction over many months." It said customers on Octopus's Agile and Go tariffs reduced the proportion of their daily electricity demand consumed during the evening peak hours by averages of 15% and 17% respectively. The response was greatest for electric vehicle (EV) drivers on the Agile tariff, who lowered their consumption by an average of 0.2kW between 4pm and 7pm, representing an 18% reduction in their average demand and a 23% reduction in the proportion of their daily demand consumed during the three-hour period. The average reduction was also 0.2kW for EV drivers on the Go tariff, although this represented a smaller 17% reduction in their average demand and a 19% decrease in the proportion of their daily demand consumed during the time slot. The reduction from other households on the Agile tariff was 0.1kW, equating to a 7% reduction in average demand and a 12% reduction the proportion of their daily demand consumed during the evening peak. There was no overall response from house- holds without an EV on the Go tariff. Extrapolating the results of the trial to the whole of Great Britain suggested domestic flexibility could reduce peak demand on the power grid by 6.8GW – or 10% – by 2030 in a high scenario in which there is widespread adoption of EVs (38%) and high rates of participation (up to 63%). However, in the low scenario in which EV uptake is limited (14%) and there is low participation (10%), households would only provide 400MW of demand reduction, equat- ing to just 1% of peak demand. Tom Grimwood, news editor Ovo to cut up to 2,000 jobs Ovo Energy is to cut up to 2,000 jobs as part of its latest round of redundancies. The Unite union said the company announced plans to its staff on 13 January to cut between 1,700 and 2,000 roles, more than a quarter of its work- force of 6,200, as the energy cri- sis continues to grip the sector. Ovo was making heavy losses well before the recent spikes in wholesale energy costs. In 2020, the company made a £141 million loss a¦er the pan- demic forced it to accelerate the integration of SSE's retail arm, bringing forward some of the associated costs. In response, Unite has accused Ovo bosses of "blunder- ing and plundering" the com- pany in recent years. Following Ovo's acquisition of SSE, Unite represents around 3,000 staff at Ovo, mainly con- sisting of customer service roles, meter readers and installers. Unite general secretary Sha- ron Graham said: "We will do everything in our power to defend members' jobs. All and every option will be on the table. "As a first step the company must open the books to union experts. We will not sit by and watch our members being made to pay the price of the pandemic." Sue Ferns, senior deputy gen- eral secretary of union Prospect, said: "These job losses are a fur- ther result of the crisis in energy retail… We hope Ovo is able to stick to its promise to limit losses to voluntary redundancy." Utility Week contacted Ovo for a response but the company declined to comment. Households with EVs made the biggest difference

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