Demand Flexibility Service returns: Could you shave £15 off your energy bill tonight?

Frugal households who switch their energy consumption to off-peak hours can save up to £15 per session as the Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) returns today.

The DFS is a National Grid program designed to prevent electricity shortages by encouraging consumers to use power during non-peak hours, usually between 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM.

This evening, customers signed up for the scheme and those who have a smart meter will receive money back if they reduce energy consumption between 5:00 PM and 6:30 PM.

Suppliers all have their own version of the DFS scheme. Octopus’ version, called Saving Sessions, now has a million customers signed up to get a discount on their energy bills for the gas and electricity they save during peak times.

The energy company launched a pilot run of its DFS program earlier this month, ahead of tonight’s national DFS event – which Octopus is also participating in.

Although the average savings are low, Octopus says its customers have participated in the program with great enthusiasm, and some have achieved impressive savings.

Some Octopus customers have saved as much as £15 per session with the DFS.

One person who participated was Simeon Johnson, a technology worker in his 40s.

Johnson got a £15.02 energy bill discount by saving 12,016 ‘Octopoints’ during the November 16 savings session.

The tech worker says he hasn’t had any trouble making the savings, but has had a little help from his energy tariff and the household battery he installed in his building.

“I didn’t knock everything out, but we did what you had to do,” Johnson said. “For example, we didn’t turn on the oven and we did everything we could turn off.”

Johnson has two electric vehicles and as such has a specialist Octopus EV energy tariff that allows him to charge his cars more cheaply during off-peak times with low unit rates for the electricity he uses.

To take full advantage of this, Johnson also installed a 10 kW battery in his garage, which he charges when electricity is cheaper.

The energy saved in the battery then does almost everything it needs during the day, while electricity would otherwise be more expensive.

The battery Johnson has to install will cost between £3,000 and £5,000, but he says it has already saved him a fortune in energy bills.

“It gets me through all my energy expenditure during the day,” he said. ‘I mainly pay night rates for all my electricity during 24 hours.’

The battery also helps with Octopus Saving Sessions, where ‘Octopoints’ are paid for any energy that customers can sell back to the grid during the allotted time.

Johnson said his £15.02 saving was due to the sale of electricity from his domestic battery and the two batteries fitted to his electric vehicles.

The first Octopus Saving Session of the winter took place earlier this month and the utility said 250,000 customers took part in the one-hour timeframe, delivering an average savings of 81 cents.

But the top 5 per cent of energy-saving households earned £4.31 per hour, with a total of more than £204,000 passed on to customers.

Octopus launched its scheme last October and predicted the average customer would save £100 over the winter by taking part.

In practice, only the top 5 percent of participating households earned more than £40 by shifting energy consumption off-peak.

However, Octopus passed on £5.3 million in energy bill savings to 700,000 of its customers last winter.

Octopus then restarted the plan last month, in time for this winter.

An Octopus Energy spokesperson said the latest session saw a reduction in energy consumption by more than 98 megawatt hours, which is the same as the city of Newcastle being disconnected from the grid for an hour. It also reduced CO2 emissions by 2,700 tons.

How many Octopoints a customer can earn varies, and customers who participate in multiple events earn more than customers who only do one.