After receiving a few queries regarding the value of points varying between events, despite the amount of energy being reduced being the same, we thought it was worth clarifying a few things.
Why the difference in points value?
For National Grid DFS events, the rewards are subsidised by National Grid. This means you are able to earn 2x or sometimes 3x more points for taking part in them in comparison to Non-DFS equivents. One of the main reasons for this is that the DFS scheme is the first large-scale domestic flexibility trial in the UK so they wanted to incentivise as many people to take part as possible, so the rewards on offer were particularly good.
Ultimately, the number of points you can earn for taking part in an equivent will depend on who is paying us for running the event and what they offer per kWh saved for providing flexibility to the grid. In some instances, this will mean that you will earn less per kWh saved for shifting the same amount of energy.
In the coming months, we will be making some changes to the app to make it clearer who the event is being run for and what the reward per kWh is being offered for anyone that takes part in the event. This will help to give you all a better idea of how many points are on offer and provide more transparency on who has requested us to run the event.
As many of you will be able to appreciate, the domestic flexibility market is still in its infancy so we might not have answers to all of your questions right now as many things are still being worked out but if you do have any questions or feedback, please get in touch!
Hi @Stephen_Chattaway, it seems like thereās a 30 minute mismatch because we report the consumption for the past 30 minute period.
For example, if it says something like 2:00PM: 3kWh that would be your usage for the period between 1:30PM - 2:00PM. But it seems like some energy suppliers report this in reverseā¦so the usage they give for 2:00PM would be the usage between 2:00PM - 2:30PM.
Hope this is clear? We will try to make this clearer in the app in the future by indicating the entire period instead of just the period ending time.
I see, in that case your supplier (or wherever youāre looking at) should be reporting the same way we do. We did have an additional issue where the Smart Meter data page was not displaying the data in day light savings time. Perhaps this was the issue you were seeing?
This has since been fixed, but it was purely a data presentation bug in the graph and detailed view, and didnāt have anything to do with the actual consumption and calculations.
Iāve been finding it difficult to earn any points in equivents, and Iāve tried various strategies now to try to make efforts rewarding. It looks like the system constantly predicts usage of 0 Watts. Iāve tried turning off MCBs, leaving only the PV and battery system active, instead of having the internal house batteries in āmaximum self consumptionā mode, I have tried forcing them to discharge into the grid (which Iām not sure would have been worth it even if the Equiwatt app had rewarded me as it adds an additional discharge/charge cycle to expensive equipment and I risk not having enough stored electricity to see me through the night so end up pulling electricity from the grid by early hours of the morning!) Literally sat by candle light working from laptop battery, etc. Cannot seem to build up any points even though Iām actively helping the grid at peak times and putting a lot of effort into it.
The last time I earned points was back on 12th May, and Iāve fully participated in at least 18 events since then! How are others getting on with the app? Am I missing something obvious here (other than needing to use more energy generally, which doesnāt sound like a very rewarding option)? Not really sure what else to try in order to realise value in the app or the time devoted to itā¦
Is the forecast based on usage during the hour of the event? With many equivents occuring at that time, the average is very low, removing the incentive to participate.
First of all welcome to the community and I hope you are well.
We appreciate your detailed feedback and are sorry to hear that you are unable to get the equiwatt experience as expected.
Based on the information you provided, I would like to say:
By using energy from your solar panels/battery at times, you will inevitably have a much lower forecast as our app currently does not have the capability to track how much energy you are using when you do not use it from the grid.
Since our forecasts are based on the data provided by your smart meter, we can only provide forecasts based on the data they provide (i.e. When you use energy from the grid) and not based on your overall energy usage.
In your case it is harder for you to get a higher forecast as you are already reducing your use of energy generated from the grid regularly, then the forecast will very be low from our systems perspective and hence you will be unable to beat it and earn points.
However, this is something that is under review as we appreciate that some users are making efforts to reduce their energy usage but are seeing no reward for their efforts.
Furthermore, we also plan on trialling āturn upā events which will reward users for using more energy at certain times when renewable energy is being underused. This will also enable users to have another way to benefit from using their energy more flexibly.
I hope that provides a bit more clarity.
Thanks again for being part of the equiwatt community and putting in efforts to help save energy and the planet.
Please contact us know at hello@equiwatt.com if you have further questions or feedback
Your forecast is the amount of electricity you are likely to use at the time of an equivent. It is calculated by taking your average electricity usage during a similar period of time in the previous days (excluding weekends, bank holidays and days when another event took place) from your smart meter.
Interesting to know that the average excludes other events, but I think there is a risk that rewards will become so insignificant that it discourages adoption.
and I hope you are well.
