Octopus has issued a £900 warning to anyone who is a customer with them. The energy provider is calling on the National Energy System Operator (NESO) “to strengthen the role of households in managing grid constraints” in the UK.
Octopus watns NESO to be “reducing the need to turn on expensive and polluting fossil fuel plants” after the system chose to pay over £17 million to two fossil fuel power plants for backup power amid a cold weather snap yesterday, instead of calling on the significantly cheaper Demand Flexibility Service (DFS).
In contrast households participating in Octopus’ demand flexibility scheme ‘Saving Sessions’ during the same timeframe were offered just £900 per MWh – over six times less. Octopus made the call in the wake of Christmas and the New Year.
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The £17 million paid to gas peakers yesterday was £5 million more than the total amount given to households through the DFS across the whole of 2024. Last winter, customers received an average of £2,850 per MWh shifted, the energy firm – which is rivalled by British Gas – said.
Octopus also counts the likes of EDF Energy, E ON Next, Ovo, Scottish Power, Utilita and Utility Warehouse among its competitors and rivals in the UK. In a statement this week, Greg Jackson, Founder of Octopus Energy, said: “What happened yesterday is another example of our malfunctioning energy system. Millions of pounds were added to bills in just a few hours to pay a handful of gas power plants for a modest amount of electricity.
“It’d have been far cheaper to pay customers who chose to use a bit less instead. This was incredibly successful last year, but has been crippled by bureaucratic wrangling. Yesterday shows we need to redouble efforts to make the system work for customers, not against them.”