Simon Connelly, Senior representative of Octopus Energy, will cover what the company is doing to help customers get through the Energy Crisis. (10mins)
Minutes:
Simon Connelly from Octopus Energy joined the meeting to provide an industry view on the current energy crisis.
Simon provided an insight into Octopus’s Energy Saving Sessions or Blackout Busters which had been launched today. Anyone who had a smart meter was able to apply for the trial scheme which had also tentatively been run the previous year. It was based on a first come first services but was hoped it would be rolled out further in the future. The reason of the scheme was to encourage users to shift their energy outside of peak times, to take pressure away from the national grid. It would hope the scheme would help with pinch points in usage and sway from any negative impact’s energy peak usage may have, such as outages which had been mentioned by the Government and media.
It was a two-pronged attack, looking to reduce amount of pinch points during the winter and help drive down the high wholesale market cost of energy. The unit rate had been so high over the past few years due to the demand on the National Grid. 40% of the distribution operator was gas powered, so the more usage could be drive down the less gas the power stations would need to use, which would have a positive knock on effect.
During a period of discussion, the following points were made and answers were
given:
· By industry standards at least once a year payment adequacy reviews had to be run on customer accounts. This would look at the estimated annual energy consumptions which were generated by historical readings. The users monthly direct debit payments were then based on that annual estimated consumption. This provided a clear and transparent estimation to customer on how much their payments were likely to be.
· Octopus ran payment adequacy reviews more than once a year, as they liked to be transparent and honest with their customers.
· Any negative amounts would trigger an automatic payment adequacy review, and the same if an account had too much credit.
· The average monthly cost for a family of four was around £200-£300 a month on energy usage.
· Every household and home were different.
· Octopus had over 5million customers.
· The Government scheme was for every household to have a smart meter by 2025.
· It was advised to set your boiler at a certain temperature.
· Octopus were putting a lot of investment into air source heat pumps and had recently bought an air source heat pump company and were trying to drive down the cost and the side of the pumps.
· Many customers were hesitant about smart meters due to the misinformation out there. Many people believed that companies controlled the energy through the smart meter which wasn’t possible. The smart meter communicated energy usage remotely to the companies.
· The only way companies know if your home or away is through your energy usage. It would not be used to track people.
· Data was used from smart meters to help bill people correctly and show energy usage.
· Every direct debit came with a direct debit guarantee. By law 10 days’ notice had to be given for any changes, Octopus gave 30 days to allow conversation with customers.
· Every generation of smart meter was improving. Companies had to be careful with full access to smart meters.
· Octopus were currently developing their own in-house display units.
· Economy 7 meters were still used by Octopus and was available if people wished to request them.
· If people had the capacity to have battery storage, then that was encouraged.
· Octopus always encouraged customers to speak to them directly about tariffs.
· Tariffs were governed by the price cap, which would keep being increased.
· The energy bill support scheme offered support to everyone and would be split into 6 monthly payments until March.