A man from Wales has spoken about what it is like to take part in the National Grid's energy reducing scheme. Lee Morris, 47, and his family from Newport have been taking part in the Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) scheme since November last year.
There will be 12 'energy reduction days' overall, which could see households be rewarded with £100 before the end of March. Homes across the UK will be paid for reducing their energy use for one hour during certain times of the day in order to avoid blackouts.
This week, the DFS Service Requirement was issued for Monday January 23, between 5pm and 6pm. With a few set to take place before the end of March, Lee shared what it had been like for him and his family thus far.
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According to the lorry driver, him and his family have been trying to save on energy and money for a number of years but in particular during the cost of living crisis. Speaking to Wales Online, Lee said: "For the past couple of years we've been trying to reduce our energy usage, for example changing our light bulbs to LED light bulbs and so on.
"With the cost of living, you are always looking into ways of saving money. It has been a struggle to pay during the cost of living in general. Recently, I’ve had to change my job from what was usually a Monday until Friday sort of day job to the job I do now which involves working the weekends.
"As a result, it means I’m spending less time with my family. The cost of energy has obviously gone up as well, but we luckily have not been affected by that yet as we are on a fixed deal until October."
Last year, Lee found out about the National Grid's scheme on reducing energy usage and wanted to take part. Lee's energy supplier, Octopus Energy, contacted Lee via email to offer him the chance to opt in to their 'Saving Sessions' scheme.
According to the Octopus Energy website, the rate customers can be paid changes from session to session, but between £1 and £6 per kilowatt hour is saved. It also added that if its customer takes part in all 12 sessions and have saved 1 kilowatt hour on average per session, they expect the customer's OctoPoint rewards to be worth around £36.
However, the provider predicts there'll be more than 12 sessions. Based on previous years, Octopus Energy expects around one or two sessions per week, which would amount to 25 in total. As a result, its customers could be earning OctoPoint rewards worth around £100. A list of energy providers who are taking part in the scheme can be found on the ESO website.
According to Lee, he was able to sign up to the scheme online, which required that his household had a working smart meter. "It was purely voluntary," he explained. "There were a couple of conditions to be able to sign up, for example, I had to have a smart meter that was able to send back your meter readings on a half-hourly basis and that was about it.
"Watching and reading the news, what was being done to reduce energy usage during peak periods and the chance of power cuts being the result, were the main reason to do it. It was marketed as a scheme that could earn you points that could be redeemed for credit on your account - that was another reason as well."
Lee and his family have done six sessions so far. He said: "In terms of what we are trying to do depends on what time of day you do it and that means you have to change your routine. But it’s quite easy to change the routine, I think a lot of people are trying to reduce the amount of energy they are using anyway so it’s not really that much of an adjustment.
"In terms of what we do personally, we try and warm the house a little bit more so that during that hour when the heating is going to be off, it doesn’t get too cold. We keep one light on in the living room, with everything else switched off apart from the fridge and freezer.
"I try and make sure that my daughter’s tablet is charged before that period so she can talk to her friends. We make sure that most of the devices we are going to use are battery powered, so it’s not like you’re sitting there with nothing to do."
But despite the family's efforts to reduce the amount of energy they use, Lee is concerned that the amount of money they will have saved will not be significant. Although still waiting to receive meter readings from previous sessions, Lee says that so far he has saved just under £2.
According to the Octopus Energy website, for households who are generally low energy users around the 'Saving Session' period, it will be harder for the households to make bigger savings. But, the provider also says it might be down to the way they have to calculate the household's energy saving.
"Generally speaking, for what they are looking to achieve - obviously it is a good idea," Lee said. "Everybody needs to try and reduce the amount of energy they are using anyway. It’s highlighted now because people are seeing the benefit of that now. I totally understand why they are doing it and the times they are doing it, the problem I have is the other selling point.
"Obviously it is voluntary and you’re earning points that you can redeem. It’s not a big money-making scheme for us. But it was marketed as something individuals could save £100 by doing, so for those people that are sitting in the dark and cold and thinking they are saving a £100 off their bill, I'm worried it may be a little bit misleading. For the six sessions we’ve done, we’ve saved £1.88.
"We are waiting for the results of two sessions. So for the four sessions we’ve done, we’ve saved £1.88. We've got one planned soon which will be an hour - the longest we will have done so far.
"I’m a bit disappointed already because I know I’m probably only going to earn enough points to redeem around 40p off the bill. When bills are £300 a month and we are hopefully helping the rest of the country from experiencing power cuts, it’s not really much of an incentive to go out of your way to do it. I think there should’ve been a far wider campaign to encourage everybody to do the same thing, not just about a million people in the UK."
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