A nationwide energy-saving scheme that pays households to use less energy at peak times over winter, meaning that you can be paid for turning off appliances in your home at specific times, is back and has been extended to a year-round scheme!
The Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) is an innovative energy management scheme in the UK that encourages consumers to reduce their electricity usage during peak demand periods, and its back for 2024. Participants can earn money, vouchers, or credits on their electricity bills to reduce consumption during DFS events.
The DFS events will help to reduce the need for using as much fossil-fueled energy production methods during high peak energy demand. Image courtesy of Markus Distelrath/Pexels
What is a DFS event?
The Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) scheme, which is an initiative from the government-owned “National Energy System Operator” (NESO): the Demand Flexibility Service, incentivises households to reduce their energy consumption during peak times when energy demand is high. By doing so, they help alleviate pressure on the power grid and prevent power cuts or blackouts.
The DFS operates as a system that rewards households who opt to lower their energy usage during periods of network strain. These households often receive financial incentives, such as discounts on their energy bills, for their participation. Over the past two years, the program has seen over 2.6 million homes and businesses participate, resulting in an estimated 7,000MWh of electricity saved during peak times.
The updated version of the service introduces several notable changes. Notably, the Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) will now operate year-round, rather than just during the winter months as in previous years. This expansion aligns the DFS with the broader electricity market.
How does it work and how long do the DFS events go on for?
If you register for the DFS events via your energy provider and have a smart meter, you’ll be told about each event by an app notification or email from your provider. This will tell you what time to turn off your devices and start saving. This is normally the day before the event takes place, but could be the same day if energy demand is high.
You’ll need to manually turn off your equipment, unless you are using an app where you can turn them off via your device. If you are using the Equiwatt app and a compatible smart device, it will turn off your devices automatically for you and then turn them back on from you once the event has finished.
Each of these tests will run for one hour, and during this time, participants in the scheme are encouraged to turn off as many appliances as they can in their homes to reduce the amount of energy the household uses.
How much can I earn?
As a token of appreciation, the DFS will compensate households for conserving energy, but there’s a catch. The new scheme reduces the reward you receive by a significant 90%. Previously, you were typically paid £2.25 per unit you saved, but now it’ll be closer to 22p per unit. While it’s still a step in the right direction, it’s a bit of a disappointing drop in reward value!
During the 2023 winter sessions, I managed to save 2 gigawatts of power. That’s equivalent to absorbing the CO2 emissions of 216,000 adult trees in a single year, even though I missed a couple of sessions. I received £18 in credit from DFS partner Octopus. However, I suspect that with the lower rates, I’ll be lucky to save that much money in the future.
Who can take part?
You need to be a household with a smart meter or a business site with half-hourly metering to sign up, either your retail energy supplier or online providers/apps who are participating in the service or third-party providers as either money, prizes or bill credits.
You can only sign up for the Demand Response Scheme (DFS) if you have a smart meter or an electronic device that measures your electricity usage. This is because the amount of energy you save during these hour-long events is calculated based on your smart meter readings.
The energy provider will collect 60 days of your energy usage data from your smart meter and use it to estimate your average daily energy consumption. This figure will serve as your baseline energy usage. By turning off your electrical equipment and conserving energy during the DFS event, the energy provider can calculate the difference between your typical usage during that hour and your actual usage during the event. You will then be rewarded for the energy you saved.
For instance, if you typically use 2KWh of energy and only use 1KWh during the DFS event, you will be rewarded for your 1KWh energy savings. If you don’t save any energy during the event, you won’t receive any compensation. However, if you use more energy than usual, which may occur if you need to use appliances during the event, you won’t incur any additional charges; you simply won’t earn any money.
During the 2022 winter, a total of £11 million was distributed to the 1.6 million participants in the s
What should I turn off?
Turning off high-energy devices such as your TV, fridge and freezer makes sense, but even turning off small appliances can make a difference, items such as game consoles use more electricity than you might think, taking the TV, DVD player etc off on standby will also make a saving and if you need a hot drink, only boil the exact amount of water you need.
Certain apps, such as Equiwatt, can talk to smart devices, such as smart power sockets and will automatically turn these smart plugs on and off for you, which is very handy.
Equiwatt
An app I’ve spoken about many times previously on my Penny Pincher blog is Equiwatt. They are one of the partners of the DFS service, and you can use them to perform your DFS events. It is worth noting that you can only use one provider for your DFS events, so if, like me, you use Octopus as your energy provider and also make use of the Equiwatt service, you have to choose which service to register with for DFS events, as you can only use one!
I’ve stuck with Octopus this year as it is easier for me as all my energy information is within the Octopus app, but if your energy provider isn’t taking part in DFS events and you have a smart meter, then use Equiwatt as you don’t then miss out of saving money.
Equiwatt awards you points for taking part in DFS events, plus extra events they run separately, called Equivents, which run throughout the year, not just in the winter, and you can trade those points in for the prizes below:
Once you have 1,000 points, you can cash them out for a gift card.
About the author: Al Baker runs the Penny Pincher Blog and is a money-saving & side hustle expert and content creator.
Main image credit – Photo by Arthur Lambillotte on Unsplash
