Pod Point Flex

What is Pod Point Flex?

Pod Point Flex is a new scheme that rewards you for making small changes to your charging patterns in order to help the electricity grid.

As we move to renewable energy, we can help the grid by adjusting our electricity usage to match the peaks and troughs of wind and solar generation. This is valuable to the grid, and so they will pay us, and we will share those rewards with you.

Do I have to sign up?

Absolutely not; Pod Point Flex is entirely optional.

Why am I seeing this now?

Pod Point customers who are in applicable regions will be sent an invite to join Pod Point Flex. We are working hard to make Pod Point Flex available to all our customers.

How does it work?

Generation on the grid is not steady, we can help by moving the times at which we charge our cars to meet the peaks and troughs of energy generation.

To make it as easy as possible for you, Pod Point will automatically pause charging for Flex customers for short periods when needed.

You are in control:

• You can see the upcoming pause events in your app and skip them individually.
• During the event, your app will show that your charging is paused due to a flex event, but you can override this by using the Charge Now button.
• If you no longer wish to participate, you can opt-out in the app at any time

How long will the scheme run?

Pod Point Flex schemes run for different periods of time, depending on how the regional grid is managed. Your enrolment and welcome emails will detail the length of your scheme and rewards.

What's in it for me?

Pod Point Flex will reward you with an Amazon voucher for participating in the scheme. Eligibility means participating in at least half of the events during the length of your scheme.

Customers enrolled in Pod Point PeakSave will be credited by British Gas on their bill. See Pod Point PeakSave FAQ

How will I be charged for the electricity?

Pod Point Flex is not able to adjust your electricity bill, so you'll pay your electricity as normal, based on your tariff.

I'm on an off peak tariff. Can this work for me?

Most Pod Point Flex programs just pause charging occasionally, which is fine for all tariff types, including off-peak tariffs.

One specific Flex program we’re running in Scotland only does seek to move charging from the night to the daytime on windy days. If you're on an off-peak tariff, and you charge during your peak times, the reward we offer will not compensate you for the increased electricity cost. We understand that this is not ideal, and as an industry, there are plans to resolve this. However, there will be events that occur during off-peak periods as well. In particular, some nights are much windier than others, and on those nights, there is too much energy on the grid.

We note that most people charge 2-3 times per week, and if we can choose the windier nights to charge, then we'll be using the zero emission wind energy that would otherwise go to waste.