Cut your energy bills: the suppliers that will pay customers to use energy in off peak-times this winter

Energy customers will once again be rewarded for reducing their energy usage during the busiest hours.

Households across the UK are to be offered the chance to earn money or prizes by reducing their energy use this winter.

National Grid ESO has confirmed that it will once again be running its ‘demand flexibility service’ this winter, a measure which it introduced last year in order to reduce demand at peak times and avoid blackouts.

What is the demand flexibility service’?

The ‘demand flexibility service’ is run by National Grid’s Electricity Systems Operator (ESO).

It was initially trialled with Octopus Energy, to establish that it could work, and was then expanded out to cover the market as a whole once it gained approval from Ofgem, the energy regulator.

The idea was that challenges in the energy market, heightened by the war in Ukraine, had increased the risks of a shortage of energy supplies.

And that would result in blackouts.

National Grid ESO has now revealed that it has once more submitted plans to Ofgem around rerunning the scheme over 2023/24, stating that while the risks have reduced from last year it still wants to “build further resilience” into the system.

It pointed to recent research by the Centre for Sustainable Energy which showed how popular the scheme had proven ‒ 89% of respondents were satisfied with their experience, while 83% would participate again.

Those who made use of the scheme last time picked out a host of factors for doing so, including the rewards on offer and being part of a national collective effort.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was households that are finding things toughest financially who were most motivated by the chance to save a few quid through shifting their energy use.

National Grid ESO highlighted that this time around households who take part could earn pounds, points or even prizes by shifting their energy use outside of specific periods.

Which suppliers will pay you to reduce your energy use?

Obviously we don’t yet know which suppliers will sign up for this second iteration of the demand flexibility service. But last year’s run gives us a decent insight not only into the sorts of names likely to take part, but also the potential rewards on offer.

Octopus Energy was always going to take part last time around, given its role in the trial run, and it introduced ‘Saving Sessions’. 

These sessions rewarded customers by paying them an average of £4 for every unit of energy they save compared with their usual usage during a specific timeframe.

According to Octopus the sessions could have saved customers around £100 between November 2022 and March this year.

Other big names to sign up included British Gas, EDF Energy and OVO.

With British Gas for example households could join ‘peak save’ sessions, each of which lasted up to four hours with the idea of using less electricity during that period. Households were then rewarded for the energy saved.

Meanwhile Ovo promised to pay people as much as £100 to shift their energy use to times when the grid is “less congested”.

Taking part

There were certain limitations in place last year around who could benefit from the rewards offered through the demand flexibility service, and those won’t have changed this time around.

For example, your options are clearly limited by your supplier ‒ if you get your energy from a firm that opts not to sign up, or offers mediocre rewards, then you’ll have less to show for it than from other suppliers.

There’s also the small matter of smart meters, which are required by any households hoping to take part. If you don’t fancy having one then these offers won’t be available. 

For now it’s a good idea to keep an eye out for any communication from your supplier around what they are planning to offer and how to sign up.