The national grid operator, NESO, has reported back on a more than year long project termed ‘Crowdflex’, aimed at encouraging households to use electricity more efficiently to free up capacity. 

The study included EV owners who charged at home, with NESO partnering with electricity provider Ovo and smart home charger maker Ohme to help shift when electricity was being used. 

NESO has already worked with energy providers to trial smart pricing to change energy use. In Crowdflex, home owners were encouraged to use electricity at particular times either through incentives to turn things on during set periods with rewards or free electricity, or turning things off and trying to use as little electricity as possible during set periods. 

The EV drivers in the project were encouraged to plug their cars in whenever they were home and allow the smart charging systems to charge their cars as and when. There were also control groups in both situations who were encouraged to behave as normal. 

NESO said that during the Crowdflex trial it found that ‘turn-up’ events were more successful than ‘turn-down’ events, and that 64% of participants plugged their EVs in more during the trial than they did before. 

​Ohme said at the project’s peak it had 20,000 customers involved in the power trials, and that it rewarded them with over £750,000 of incentives during the project. The company said that it saw plug-in rates up 40% during the Crowdflex trial.

Ohme CEO David Watson said: “The Crowdflex energy trials have shown that companies like Ohme can play a crucial role in domestic flexibility by engaging customers and helping to save consumers more than £470 million per year in energy costs by 2036.”

Building in flexibility to the grid will not just in times of peak demand, but also the increasing times of peak supply, as more renewable sources of electricity are introduced to the national grid. Being able to divert excess wind or solar energy, for example, will be key to ensuring nothing is wasted. 

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