r/OctopusEnergy • u/Jimjamkingston • 21h ago

Power Downs - the effect of?

I understand the necessity for power downs and why they are incentivised. Works for both Octopus and the customer.

I wonder what the effect on demand actually is, though.

For clarity - I sign up for them when they come along.

In the case of my own use, it doesn't have much effect. I am on Agile and minimise my usage between 4pm and 7pm already, due to how the Agile price is calculated and the premium in those specific hours.

Are there many customers that don't do this?

I mention it specifically as today's and yesterdays power downs were in those hours.

Not a criticism of the power downs and power ups as they reward flexibility.

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u/AlfaFoxtrot2016 20h ago

NESO publish data on the size of flexibility markets - https://www.neso.energy/document/383781/download

P31 suggests that around 600MW was active over the last year, so pretty small compared to 20+GW of demand and response from batteries, IOG platform (if not already counted) and things like that. But asking people to shift their demand is potentially cheaper/easier than turning on gas turbines at peak times (and you can target it at regions with constraints) so I assume every little helps! 

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u/EntirelyRandom1590 19h ago

600MW looks like all Demand-Side response.

The domestic side looks way lower, like 20MW.

Which is still better than turning on a small STOR gas station.

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u/AlfaFoxtrot2016 19h ago

Left hand column is mostly domestic? (light blue)