How to choose between Octopus Agile and Go?

[Epico]

That's amazing, it's the future Trip to Specsavers required I think.

Edit, Just tried, I'm on the Octopus Go Faster trial and it doesn't seem to be an option for me. I'll revert to regular Go.

Try this link

Introducing Agile Octopus: The 100% green smart tariff with Plunge Pricing

 

[roadcred]

Can you switch online or do you still have to phone them up ? They can sometimes take a while to answer.

online or phone

 

[Bernard_S]

The link above worked, you would have thought it would be on their website. Thanks

Although, right now, with no sun or wind, I'm going to hang fire for a few days.

 

[vitesse]

I'd have been better off switching from GO to Agile much earlier according to Octopus Comparison but we don't use much electricity at peak times.

 

[roadcred]

I switched to Agile 21 days ago. over those 21 days my average is 5.6p per kWh. On the 21 days before my average on GO was 9.06p per kWh.
To date I am happy!

 

[Smog]

Does anyone know when they plan to start fitting smart meters again? Also, pre-COVID what was the average wait. I have a smart meter but turns out its not compatible after I’ve switched. Ill still be better off on the standard tariff, but want to get to agile ASAP!

 

[philgods]

Does anyone know when they plan to start fitting smart meters again? Also, pre-COVID what was the average wait. I have a smart meter but turns out its not compatible after I’ve switched. Ill still be better off on the standard tariff, but want to get to agile ASAP!

There's a difference between North and South UK
Took a couple of months for me (oop North)

 

[MrBadger]

I have always advocated how the extraordinary times at present has flattered Agile pricing. I now have some preliminary numbers to back that up, on our usage at least.

These are my actual usage, everyone's will vary. They are for Dec 12 2019 through to Jun 28 2020, so just over 6 months. I physically switched to Go early March. So up until that point, no time optimising for either tariff. I am fully aware that there is likely more scope for Agile optimisation, but likewise, since end March, we have done very little home charging, so plenty of scope for Go optimisation too, at a guaranteed 5p/kWh. I don't think the numbers will vary too much.

What these numbers show are the actual smart meter readings, but overlaid across for both Go and Agile tariffs. These are the A Samples. I then went on to use historical pricing from one year prior, shifting to ensure that days of the week always aligned. These are the B samples. This does mean though that Xmas 2019 was Wed/Thu and 2018, Tue/Wed. Likewise, New Year 2019 was a Wed, 2018 a Tue. I don't think these shifts will be significant. The slight discrepancy in the Go A/B samples are down 2020 being a leap year. A similar slight discrepancy will be hidden within the agile numbers. The numbers include standing charge differences, including average kWh pricing.

These numbers have not been double checked and I am aware of a slight problem with them. But it is slight and I do not believe they will change the overall results significantly.

tl;dr
What the results show are that for 2019/20, we would have been £37.74 better off had we switched to Agile. However for same period 2018/19, we would have been £44.01 worse off. So Agile is not the 'no brainer' that it is sometimes made out to be especially as the more typical pricing will likely be the B samples.

Go
A Sample total 1861.153kWh £217.84 avg £0.117/kWh
B Sample total 1861.153kWh £215.13 avg £0.116/kWh

Agile
A Sample total 1861.153kWh £180.10 avg £0.097/kWh
B Sample total 1861.153kWh £259.14 avg £0.139/kWh


I always advocate everyone doing their own sums based upon their own usage over as long a period as possible. These preliminary results show why. Thankfully, at present, there is no penalty switching Octopus tariffs. So no reason not to benefit from these extraordinary times and reassess again come seasonal changes.

 

[Mark_T]

I've looked at similar comparisons using my own data and I find that ultimately they haven't been totally helpful as you will do what is best for the tariff you are on.

So when on Agile I avoid 16:00-19:00 and charge when it is cheap which can be almost any time of day and so it makes 'Go' look expensive in comparison as the charging periods are not usually in the 4 hour sweet spot for 'Go'.

Similarly when on 'Go' I wouldn't care about 16:00-19:00 and would charge only in the 4 hours over night so that makes 'Agile' look bad in comparison at those times.

The good thing though I agree, is that you can easily switch if you decide whichever one you are on is not working for you.

 

[MrBadger]

So when on Agile I avoid 16:00-19:00 and charge when it is cheap which can be almost any time of day and so it makes 'Go' look expensive in comparison as the charging periods are not usually in the 4 hour sweet spot for 'Go'.

Similarly when on 'Go' I wouldn't care about 16:00-19:00 and would charge only in the 4 hours over night so that makes 'Agile' look bad in comparison at those times.

I had already done a model adjustment for 16:00 - 19:00 on historical agile and even removing the disincentive during the 16:00-19:00 rates, it didn't make as much difference as many might think. And we are relatively high use during this period as we cook on electricity. Agile still came in more expensive on the historical rate comparison. It worked out just over £30, so around £60/year. Worth trying to avoid, but not at the expense of home harmony. But it was a useful exercise to see potential savings on my batteries in switching to agile.

But this exercise was not so much a Go vs Agile price comparison. It was to highlight what extraordinary rates Agile is giving at the moment. But as they say, past performance is not indicative of future results. I would also say that current performance is not indicative of future results too.

 

[vitesse]

As I said earlier in this thread, when I looked back using octocomparison at my own data pre-Covid last year, Agile would have saved, if less, but still would have saved compared to Go. Bear in mind that was when I was slavishly limiting my charging as much as possible to the 4 off-peak hours to optimise for Go. So if I had been on Agile back then I should logically have saved a bit more by optimising for that tariff. But the advice - do your own calculations based on your own historic data - is very good advice.

One thing to note about Agile is that you can switch back to Go temporarily if the predicted half-hourly rates don't suit your expected consumption.

 

[MrBadger]

I had already done a model adjustment for 16:00 - 19:00 on historical agile and even removing the disincentive during the 16:00-19:00 rates, it didn't make as much difference as many might think. And we are relatively high use during this period as we cook on electricity. Agile still came in more expensive on the historical rate comparison. It worked out just over £30, so around £60/year. Worth trying to avoid, but not at the expense of home harmony. But it was a useful exercise to see potential savings on my batteries in switching to agile.

A recent post on here, I realised that I had got my disincentive figure wrong for this so redid my tests - I had previously used a disincentive of 9p+vat rather than 13p+vat. It was enough to swing the result back into favour Agile by around £15. This figure assumes that electricity consumption between 4-7pm is largely avoided.

Historically, for us, Agile would only work if we can avoid the 4-7pm period. I shall reassess when I get our batteries commissioned though - not clear cut as it adds wear and tear to battery that would better be used with free or negative rather than discounted energy.

Empirically, the seemingly arbitrary 13p+vat disincentive would appear to be key to Agile pricing. Avoid that, Agile does seem to work even historically, but its marginal (~50p/week) and may not outweigh being slave to the pricing. If you cannot avoid that, its highly seasonable. This year would have been an exceptionally good season (~£1.25/week better) over last 3 or so months, but last year, Go would have been ~£1.50/week cheaper than Agile.

The balance of Agile vs Go pricing remains very much down to personal usage patterns.

 

[simon.c]

I've been on Go since October last year and got my Model 3 in January and looking back at that data using the octopuscomparison.netlify site it seems that bar one week in January and a couple of days in March I would have consistently been better off on Agile than Go, and that's without even consciously avoiding the 4pm-8pm peak and specifically using the Go period for charging the car!

I've put the switch in so should be changed over tonight but based on the data I've been looking at I don't anticipate changing behaviour much beyond a fairly high level approach of avoiding doing laundry in the evenings and probably not bothering to stop the car charging at 04:30 like I normally do. I usually manage to charge up what I've used on my commute during the Go 4 hours anyway at this time of year, but in the winter it sometimes doesn't quite manage it and I just run a charge deficit on the days I'm working and then let it catch up on my rest days. With Agile I probably won't need to worry about that, and can obviously keep an eye out for any plunge opportunities.