Ovo Launches UK’s First PAYG Energy Service

Those of us still using pre-payment energy meters will no longer need to worry about facing unwelcome blackouts following the launch of a new Pay As You Go (PAYG) tariff service.

Ovo Energy has today launched Smart PAYG+ – Britain’s first full-service smart pay as you go energy platform, which the company says will offer a new era of simpler, cheaper energy for Britain’s 11 million pay as you go (pre-payment) customers.

The company, which is the only Which?-recommended energy provider in the UK, will offer the service to customers using a single platform which can be accessed via app, text, phone or desktop.

Lights on

“We are very excited to be the first company in Britain to create a technology platform of this kind which offers such a variety of top up methods,” said David Gooch, chief digital officer at OVO Energy, which currently has around 40,000 PAYG customers

“We are literally putting the power into the customers’ hands and giving them unprecedented control and convenience over the cheapest possible energy supply.

The app, which takes around five seconds to process a top-up will provide customers with 24/7 access to their energy usage. This means users can set credit thresholds, receive warnings of how many days until they will need to add credit and, importantly, top up remotely at their convenience.

The news will come as a welcome boost to smart energy campaigners, as more and more consumers look to save money on their bills.

The UK government had planned to install 100 million smart meters across the country by 2020 in an attempt to ensure the nation led the way on energy usage, but findings this week threw doubt on the probability of this.

A study by the Institute of Directors found that 37 percent of consumers believed that the new technology will actually benefit energy suppliers the most, rather than consumers

Fifty-six percent of UK citizens are concerned about smart meter data privacy, with more than half of those surveyed agreed that the draw of additional customer data is most likely the real reason for the smart meter initiative.

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