Are Ovo free energy plans worth it
Ovo offers its customers free energy between 11am and 2pm in many parts of the country, but I've always wondered if this is really a win for homes or this is just clever marketing.
Sam Bendat
Updated: June 17, 2025
In the past I've done analysis for homes to see which plan is best for their consumption patterns, factoring in the Ovo free plan to see if it comes out on top for them.
It's time to take a deeper look into buying free energy.
The Ovo free plan depends squarely on the ability to move consumption patterns
There are no real hidden secrets here. If a home can move its consumption into a free three-hour window during the day then of course it will reap the benefits. However, I think people overestimate their ability to shift their consumption in a meaningful way.
If we work from home, are retired, or a family member is at home all day then a home might be able to make the afternoon free energy period work in their favour. But even still, they would want hard evidence that they are successfully moving their consumption to the afternoon, like monitoring their consumption hour by hour.
But like a vast majority of homes, power is more often consumed in the evening when everyone gets home from work and school, followed by the earlier morning period when everyone is getting ready for their day.
The table below shows the consumption patterns of a home with solar that I did a battery analysis for. We can see that the Ovo free period is the lowest consumption period for this home after factoring in their solar energy consumption.
With only 8% of grid consumption occurring during the free period, this home has either already made the most of consuming its own solar energy or simply doesn't have enough consumption in the afternoon for the free plan to be worth it, or both!
But before I get any strongly worded emails! Of course, as a home moves more consumption to the afternoon period when the sun is shining, not only will it save more money, but that home will also be using more renewable energy, a double win! But its easier said than done.
Buying or having solar panels on the Ovo free energy plan or go straight to a battery with no solar
With abundant solar energy in the afternoon and the ability to buy additional free energy, the benefit might seem obvious. However, for most homes, their solar system already offsets a significant portion of their afternoon energy usage, reducing the impact of the free plan. It's more than likely that for most homes their solar system will be offsetting a solid portion of their energy consumption in the afternoon hours, so they will be unable to take advantage of buying free energy.
However, it is possible that a battery in the winter months could charge using both solar and grid energy to be used later in the day. Mostly due to the fact that there are fewer sunny hours available, and heating demands are at their highest peaks.
But this can also become a fairly complex optimisation problem. How does a battery charge when grid energy is available for free and solar is producing that afternoon? There is no point in fully charging a battery with grid energy when we could charge it with our own solar energy. It's an analysis I can look into later down the road.
In the past I've written about buying grid energy for charging a home battery to see what kind of savings that could earn one home. For that home, specifically, it didn't unlock a massive savings only because its hard to predict weather patterns and buying grid energy there was a risky gamble. Installing a battery to charge with free grid energy
Installing a battery to charge with free grid energy
If there is enough interest from readers I can look into this in greater detail, seemingly it makes sense for some homes to skip solar all together and go straight for a battery. If the grid is overflowing with solar energy, it might be possible to buy a neighbour's energy, store it for next to nothing, and power a home.
It's also part of the big hope for electric vehicles. Where anyone will be able to use an affordable bidirectional charger to power their home.
The Ovo free energy plans come with a premium for peak periods outside of the free energy
Another part of the Ovo plan to be aware of is they are not just giving away energy for free and then taking the hit on any transactions, admin and other costs. The Ovo off-peak costs are usually considerably higher than other competitive rates on offer.
So while the free rate does seem like quite the offer, be aware that the other rates in the plan will be a bit higher than other rates from other providers. Straightforward but it can sometimes be overlooked once we get excited about free energy.
I can help you find out if the Ovo free plan is your best choice
With your permission, SolvingZero can access your energy consumption and your solar exports (if you have solar) to help you figure out if an Ovo plan will actually save you money. It takes about two minutes to do online, we don't need to connect a device or visit your home.
Once connected, we sort through hundreds of energy plans available to your area to find you the best one that fits your actual consumption patterns. Including to see if the free energy from Ovo will save you money.