CrowdFlex Terms and Conditions

Terms and conditions (specific to CrowdFlex) and supplementary to the Power Move Flex T&Cs

1. About these Terms

These terms and conditions (the Terms) apply to trial one of the CrowdFlex project (Trial One, the Trial). Please read these Terms carefully. These Terms are in addition to, and do not replace, the ‘Power Move Flex’ (Power Move Flex) terms and conditions, our Core Energy Supply Terms and Conditions (Core Terms) or any other terms which may apply to your OVO plan. All defined terms in the Core Terms will have the same meaning when used in these terms unless otherwise stated. 

By signing up to Trial One you agree to be bound by these Terms. 

2. About CrowdFlex

2.1 OVO is taking part in CrowdFlex, an OFGEM funded project, running a series of trials from May 2024 until December 2025. The trials are aimed at understanding how households can contribute to a greener electricity grid (CrowdFlex). The learnings we gather from being part of these trials will be essential for the Electricity System Operator to plan for the future of the electricity grid and how our customers can play a role in this. Trial One is the first of these trials and will be run in collaboration with third parties including the Electricity Systems Operator (ESO), Southern Electric Power Distribution, Centre for Net Zero, Centre for Sustainable Energy, ERM (Environmental Resources Management), Amazon Web Services, Octopus Energy, Ohme Operations UK, National Grid Electricity Distribution (South West), and Smith Institute.

3. About Trial One

3.1 Trial One will run from 6 May to 31 July 2024 (the Trial Period) and will involve eligible customers selected for the Trial signing up to Power Move Flex. Power Move Flex is designed to reward customers for moving their energy usage by taking part in Power Up and Power Down events. These events are designed to encourage you to move your electricity usage either into a specific time period (Power Up) or move out of a specific time period (Power Down). For more details see Power Move Flex.

3.2 Power Up and Power Down events are decided by the ESO rather than by OVO, but we’ll let you know by email within 48 hours before an event is due to take place. As the events are controlled by ESO we’re unable to confirm the number of events or the reward value of these events in advance. Please note that you’re automatically entered into every event as deemed appropriate by OVO and ESO, but you have a choice to not take part in it.  

3.3 If you successfully move your electricity use above or below your normal usage, as measured by our baseline methodology, as part of a Power Up or Power Down event then you may be rewarded with credit to your bill. Please see Section 5 for more details.

For Power Down events, we calculate your baseline using ESO’s methodology:

For working days (Mon - Fri excluding bank holidays) – your baseline is calculated using the half hourly electricity usage data taken from your smart meter over the last 10 working days before an event. You must have at least 5 working days worth of data for a target to be calculated.

For non-working days (Saturday, Sunday & bank holidays) – your baseline is calculated using the half hourly electricity usage data taken from your smart meter over the last 4 non-working days. You must have at least 4 non-working days worth of data for a target to be calculated.

For Power Up events, there will be a zero baseline on consumption

How can I join the Trial?

3.4 Entry to Trial One is by invitation only. We’ll be inviting eligible customers to sign up from April 2024. Please note that places are limited to 48,000 customers and signing up doesn’t guarantee you’ll be accepted onto the Trial. When you sign up you’ll be added to a waitlist and we’ll be randomly selecting customers to join the Trial. You’ll receive an email from us to confirm if you’ve been added to the Trial.

3.5 A control group will also be selected randomly from the waitlist and you’ll be notified by email if you’re in this group. The control group helps in improving understanding of baseline consumer behaviours. While you won’t participate in the Trial, or receive event notifications during the Trial, if you’re in this group,  your smart meter and survey response data will be shared in accordance with CrowdFlex data sharing terms and our just in time notice.

4. Eligibility

4.1 In order to be eligible for Trial One and Power Move Flex you must meet the following criteria:

  • have a communicating electricity smart meter that is a credit meter

  • have a smart meter that is single rate (meaning you only pay a single, flat rate for your electricity), economy-7

  • Charge Anytime or Heat Pump Plus customers can also join

  • opt in to half-hourly meter readings through the trial period

  • have an active email address

  • have OVO as your energy provider continuously through the trial period

  • do not require the use of electricity for medical equipment or other reasons

  • comply with these Terms, the Power Move Flex Terms and the Core Term

    4.2 Unfortunately there may be some types of meters that won’t work with CrowdFlex or Power Move Flex. If you have an ineligible meter you won’t be able to join CrowdFlex trials.

    4.3 If at any time you don’t meet the Eligibility Criteria, including no longer opting in to half-hourly meter readings, then we reserve the right to terminate your participation in any CrowdFlex trial. And you won’t receive any further CrowdFlex related energy credit.

Opting out of events

4.4 You’ll be automatically opted in to every Power Up or Power Down event.

4.5 You won’t be able to opt out of a specific event, instead you’d have to opt out of the Trial (see Section 6). There’s no obligation for you to take part in every event, and there’s no penalty for not taking part.  

5. Reward 

How much will I receive as a reward?

5.1 As this is a trial, we’ll be testing different price incentives (£/kWh) per event. All trial participants will receive different incentives (£/kWh) dependent on your group allocation. Participants will be split into up to 5 groups, each of which will be set a different reward value for each Power Move Flex event. You’ll stay in the same group for the duration of the trial. There’ll also be a control group who won’t be participating in the Trial or be able to earn bill credit. We’ll let you know by email if you’re in the control group.

Your total reward will depend on how much electricity you can move above or below your normal usage (depending on the event type) and your group allocation. We can’t guarantee that you’ll earn credit for each event. Some customers may not earn any bill credit (for example if you’re in the control group) or if the incentive is set to lower than the standard variable unit rate. We’ll let you know what group you’re in, and your reward value will be in your Power Flex event email. 

If you’re a Charge Anytime customer, we'll automatically incorporate Power Up or Power Down events into the Smart Charging functionality we provide, wherever we can. There may be occasions where we aren’t able to align your EV charging to an event, for example if it conflicts with your charging schedule. 

5.2 The reward is being funded by ESO, with OVO passing through the payment to you. The level of reward for each event is also set by ESO.

5.3 The reward is applied as credit directly to your bill. You’ll be credited each month with the sum of all rewards earned in the previous month. For example, for any rewards earned in May, you’ll receive energy credit in June. 

5.4 If you pay by Direct Debit, the Direct Debit amount you pay per month won’t change, the energy credit will show as a separate line item on your bill.

5.5 If your account has a negative balance, any reward paid will be used to pay off what’s owed.

5.6 There’s no cash alternative to the reward and you won’t be able to withdraw the credit from your energy account to your bank account.

5.7 If we’re unable to read your smart meter data for 3 days after the event, then you won’t be eligible for the reward. If your smart meter isn’t communicating you won’t be able to receive a reward as we won’t have the data we need to correctly calculate your energy usage. 

5.8 There’s no guarantee that you’ll earn a minimum reward amount from taking part in Trial One and Power Move Flex.

What happens if I don’t meet the criteria to receive a reward?

5.9 For a Power Up event, you won’t be eligible to receive any reward if you don’t increase your electricity use to above your normal usage, as measured by our baseline methodology.

For a Power Down event, you won’t be eligible to receive any reward for an event if you don’t reduce your electricity use to below your normal usage, as measured by our baseline methodology.

6. Ending your participation in CrowdFlex

If you want to leave the CrowdFlex trial

6.1 You can exit the Trial at any time by pressing the unsubscribe button at the bottom of any Power Move Flex email you've received. This may take up to 48 hours to complete. Your opt out won’t be recorded until you’ve picked an option of continuing to share your data with the project, or to stop sharing all data with the project.

6.2 By exiting the Trial, you’ll have a choice of whether your data is removed from the project in accordance with the CrowdFlex data sharing terms and our just in time notice, or if you’re happy with your data being shared during the remaining project period to help with the research.

6.3 If you opt out of the trial, you’ll receive a survey asking you about your experience of the Trial. This isn’t compulsory to fill in. 

6.4 We’ll keep your smart meter read history, MPAN, electricity rates, CrowdFlex payment history and all communications including survey responses collected until the date of your exit, to fulfil our obligations as part of the project. We’ll retain your personal details as part of the CrowdFlex project until you request to delete it. We’re unable to delete any data relating to your personal account.

6.5 We’re unable to remove any collected data that’s already been shared with the project partners.

If you switch away

6.6 You’re free to switch away at any time (unless you owe us money, in which case we may stop your switch until the money is paid). If you switch away at any point when you’re signed up to Power Move Flex you’ll be rewarded for any events up until the point of switching. You’ll find further information about switching away from OVO in our Core Terms.

If you move home 

6.7 If you move home during the trial, we’ll be unable to sign you back up to the CrowdFlex trial.

When we can terminate your participation in the Trial 

6.8 If you don’t comply with these Terms or our Core Terms, including where you don’t pay your bills or if you no longer meet any of our Eligibility Criteria, we reserve the right to end your participation in the Trial (and therefore Power Move Flex). This would happen with immediate effect and you’ll no longer be eligible to receive the energy credit for any Power Up and Power Down events you take part in.

7. Contacting Us 

If you have any questions about the Trial or CrowdFlex, please get in touch with us via webchat.

8. Contacting You

8.1 By signing up to the Trial, you’re agreeing to receive communications in relation to these events for the entirety of the time you’re opted in.  It’s your responsibility to make sure your email address and mobile number are kept up to date in order to receive our emails. If you need to change your email address or mobile number, you can do this in your online account.

8.2 As part of this Trial, we’ll share your data with the ESO and other trusted third-parties involved in the project, as per clause 9 and our just in time notice. All aggregated and anonymised data will be stored by ESO, which may be shared with third parties in future. For more information please see ESO’s privacy policy.

8.3 We may share your contact details (name and email address) with our trusted third-party research agency partners, as mentioned in our Privacy Policy. This is so they can contact you for feedback on your experience of Power Move Flex. This includes third-parties as part of the CrowdFlex project partners. Your data won’t be used for marketing purposes unless you’ve opted in to receive marketing from us.

9. Data sharing; what data we collect and how we use it

9.1    By signing up for the Trial One, you agree to:

  • Allow OVO to share your anonymised data (your smart meter read history, MPAN, CrowdFlex payment history, electricity rates, and all communications including survey responses) with the project partners mentioned in the clause 1.1, energy regulator OFGEM and project auditors
  • Allow OVO to share your data (your email address, electricity rates, electricity MPAN and OVO ID) with Kaluza if you’re a Charge Anytime customer to notify them that you are a Charge Anytime customer and to allow them to provide smart charging services; 
  • Allow OVO to share your data (MPAN, name, email address) with Ohme (if you’re a Charge Anytime customer)

Please see our just in time notice for more details.

10. General 

10.1 We won’t be liable for any loss or damage you may suffer as a result of your participation in Power Up and Power Down events where such loss or damage cannot be excluded by law. 

10.2 These Terms are governed by English Law and any dispute arising in relation to these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.

Last updated: 05/04/24