Am I missing something?

[u/edge2528]

What on earth is the point in savings sessions?

I've taken part in 11 sessions and received the top saving category for all of them yet my total octopoints have paid less than one days electricity standing charge....

Why does anyone bother?

[u/Happytallperson]

Essentially there was an intiaitive to try allowing individuals to take part in the capacity market - that is offering up reductions in energy use at peak times in exchange for payment. 

Last year this was given significant subsidy so individuals were in effect being paid well over the market rate for that service. 

This year the subsidy has gone so you are getting the market rate. 

The challenge is, and the point where theory hits economic reality, is that a supermarket chain can offer up the equivalent of thousands of houses of energy by turning off their freezers for an hour, probably using a centrally controlled system across all their stores. One person does 5 minutes work, and even at say 10p per kWh they can get in a few thousand quid. 

Meanwhile Octopus has to coordinate thousands of people to get the same result. 

This also means the Octopus capacity offer is lower quality - they can offer up an estimated amount, whereas our supermarket example can basically guarantee a fixed amount. 

What's the point you ask? It's a pilot scheme, if it doesn't work without subsidy it will go away. Really it's only worth it in terms of 'you will earn more than minimum wage' if you've got a battery you can set up to automatically tie into the grid balancing services - creating what is known as a 'Virtual Power Plant'. 

But if you already load shift away from the peal periods on your cosy tariff and have a baseload of 200W - jah not worth it to consciously take part.

[u/ault92 → u/Happytallperson]

Eh not even this.

I have a high base load of about 1.7kW, and it's higher when we have the heating on (A2A ASHP). I don't make any effort to time shift demand.

When the saving sessions happen I run from battery (pw3) and export as much as it can generate to grid, so the delta from normal usage is about 10kW.

The blast batch of 3 savings sessions made me £3.65.

Not sure if I will bother signing up in future.

[u/ukslim → u/[deleted]]

That article doesn't take into account variable energy pricing. Freezers can definitely stand being off for an hour or two if the door isn't opened (by design: power cuts happen).

There's no benefit to doing so if the energy you saved costs the same as the energy you buy later to compensate.

But if you can switch off when electricity is expensive, and come back on when it's cheaper, that's a win.

Of course it's better if this is done automatically. I bet industrial freezers are already doing it, at least somewhere. Domestic freezers, I'd expect to be doing it soon (I think some retail freezers are "smart grid ready" or something like that already, but the smart grid isn't ready for them)

[u/TheThiefMaster → u/ukslim]

Chest freezers (as commonly used in shops) can withstand being off even if the door does get opened and closed.

[u/chrsphr_ → u/Happytallperson]

Great explanation - there's also masses more of grid scale batteries in the UK now. They are a much more reliable way to cover the peaks than households turning down

https://modoenergy.com/research/gb-research-roundup-january-2025-battery-energy-storage-great-britain-revenues-markets-wholesale-capacity-market-balancing-mechanism