Proactive Investors - British Gas and Octopus Energy paid out millions of pounds to customers who cut energy usage as part of National Grid’s demand flexibility service this winter.
Octopus paid £5.3mln to the near 700,000 people that took part, accounting for roughly half of the required demand shift, while British Gas shared out £1.8mln to 200,000 households.
Smart meter customers were rewarded by suppliers to use less energy during 13 separate demand flexibility service events between November and March, having bills cut based on how much they reduced usage compared to normal demand.
According to British Gas, the majority of savings were made by customers cooking or washing clothes at different times, with its customers saving £28.50 on average.
Octopus customers saved £7.60 on average meanwhile, though the biggest cutters from each gained between £40 and £50, rising to £332 for one British Gas customer.
Demand was reduced by 1.86GWh by Octopus customers over the 14.5 hours of events – equivalent to switching off half of London’s houses for an hour and preventing 430 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
British Gas customers cut usage by 147MWh - significantly less than Octopus - being paid £9 per KWh, compared to just £2.85 for Octopus customers.
British Gas managing director Catherine O’Kelly commented the saving events provided “invaluable insights on how we can manage consumption to support a greener grid”.
“We’ve proven that households can play a significant role in balancing the grid and moving us away from dirty fossil fuels,” Octopus’ flexibility head Alex Schoch added.
National Grid’s electricity system operating wing (ESO) ran the service, having anticipated tighter supply over the winter after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
E.ON and Shell (LON:RDSa) PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL)’s retail wing were among suppliers which also took part, though the latter offered customers entry into competitions for saving energy, rather than cutting bills.
Both British Gas and Octopus hinted similar cost-cutting services would be offered next winter, with these set to become the ESO’s main tool in tackling supply shortfalls after Drax Group (LSE:LON:DRX) and EDF-operated coal power stations were taken out of service in late March.