OVO launches digital energy calculator to help prepayment customers budget this winter

• OVO’s new digital tool will help Pay As You Go customers predict future energy costs between now and the end of March 2023
• The news follows the launch of OVO’s Customer Support Package to support customers with a real and immediate need this winter.
• Over two thirds of PAYG customers say that a calculator tool would help them understand their energy bill, as 76% of customers say they’re struggling to predict how much their energy will cost.

Wednesday 16th November 2022, London: Today, OVO, the UK’s third largest energy supplier, announces the launch of its winter calculator – a digital tool helping its Pay As You Go customers budget this winter.

OVO has harnessed the latest in digital innovation to create the Winter Calculator, giving customers with OVO’s PAYG brand Boost foresight of their energy costs this winter as the cost of living continues to rise. 

The calculator can provide monthly, weekly, and daily insights to help customers budget. By using consumption data from the previous year, the calculator can help provide a more accurate estimation. The predictions are based on the current Energy Price Guarantee (EPG).

Raman Bhatia, CEO OVO, said:

“As we head into a challenging winter for many struggling with the rising cost of living, we’re doing everything we can to help our customers. We hope that our Winter Calculator will help households understand future costs and manage their budget.”

In addition to the Winter Calculator, OVO’s Customer Support Package has bespoke support for prepayment customers, including suspension of debt recovery throughout winter. 

OVO’s £50m Customer Support Package launched on the 1st October to help customers with a real and immediate need. During the first month OVO provided: over 450 electric throws a day, over 1,700 free Smart thermostats, 1,150 free boiler services and over 200 customers identified for discounted boilers. Additionally, for prepayment customers, approximately £300,000 of temporary credit has been issued each week.

The details of OVO’s Customer Support Package include:

• Payment holiday for debt repayment for all prepayment meter customers so that money goes directly to their immediate needs, not paying back debt this winter.
• Increase by at least £10 in emergency top-up credit for customers on prepayment meters and continued commitment to never disconnect a customer.
• Free energy saving products for customers’ homes, such as smart thermostats and electric throws – prioritised for those most in need.

• Free boiler services worth £90 and 20% discount for A rated boilers to ensure boilers are working as efficiently as possible and to help prevent energy waste in the home.

• • Dedicated support for our customers in the most financial difficulty from a specialist team, including support for those in financial difficulty for the first time. 

• Offering referrals to a specialist team to find other support for vulnerable customers e.g. extra benefit entitlement.

For more information on OVO’s Customer Support Package please visit the website.

END

Notes to Editors

For more information please contact:

[email protected] 

About OVO 

OVO was founded in 2009 and redesigned the energy experience to be fair, effortless, green and simple for all customers. OVO was awarded Company of the Decade at the BusinessGreen Leaders’ Awards and has won multiple awards, including Innovation Project of the Year, for investing in the market leading technology, customer service operations and digital products to help customers cut their carbon emissions. OVO is on a mission through its sustainability strategy Plan Zero to tackle the most important issue of our time; the climate crisis, by bringing our customers with us on the journey towards zero carbon living. OVO Energy has committed to being a net zero carbon business and achieve bold science-based carbon reduction targets, while helping customers reduce their household emissions at the same time. 

About polling:

Strand Partners’ specialist research team conducted an online survey of 736 members of the public who currently use pre-payment meters, online, between 8pm, Monday, 15th November and 7am Tuesday, 16th November 2022. Due to a lack of publicly available official data about the demographics of pre-payment meter users respondents were selected for demographic.

Strand Partners’ online polling studies are conducted under the British Polling Council rules of disclosure. All data gathered is of a publishable quality and is produced within Market Research Society guidelines.

For full data tables and more detail of the methodology, please e-mail: [email protected].