Octopus Energy, including Intelligent and go

[Pink Duck]

Octopus announce the roll-out of Saving Sessions to their smart meter customers after reasonable trials earlier this year in February and March.

Reward likely between £3–6/kWh, averaging £4 on up to an expected 26 occasions this winter, for time periods announced a day in advance.

BBC article on the same.

 

[ACarneiro]

Well, I have two powerwalls and load shift 95% of my energy usage to off peak.
The grand reward for me on this scheme will be £0, if the trial is anything to go by.

 

[MattM76]

I switched to IO a few days ago. So far so good. Nice to have 6 hours of cheap rate for other appliances.

 

[SteveJol]

Well, I have two powerwalls and load shift 95% of my energy usage to off peak.
The grand reward for me on this scheme will be £0, if the trial is anything to go by.

Given the scheme is to encourage load shifting then yes, you'd be right, if you've already successfully load shifted then no additional incentive.

 

[phil4]

Well, I have two powerwalls and load shift 95% of my energy usage to off peak.
The grand reward for me on this scheme will be £0, if the trial is anything to go by.

The trial didn't go well for me either. The last two events they didn't get their time right, as they were after the clock change, but appears they were counting it as though the clocks hadn't changed. No communication stating BST/GMT, so fail there. Perhaps that's why they're starting next month, after the clock change, and will probably dodge the March bullet too, beware of that one though.
The other problem for me was getting proper visibility of the target and how close I was to hitting it. I don't mind trying, but even using the IHD you need to do some (admittedly easy calcs first), and of course then keep an eagle eye on the IHD, as you can't just take a look at the end see how you did.

Combine that with disrupting the entire family, mealtimes and the like, and the few pence it made back, it really wasn't the greatest experience.

Lets see whether offering a bit more cash makes it more worthwhile.

 

[Drew57]

I'm another who most likely won't receive rewards for load shifting (but why should I as I already load shift everything I can anyway?)

In the trial phase I usually received a target to reduce a target load of 0.04kWh or even less. Those of us with PV, battery storage and smart EV charging plans are saving enough already so the intention is to encourage everyone else to do their bit.

 

[m3gt2]

That’s interesting but yes, I do prefer to be able to charge the car from solar or from the solar-filled powerwalls in the summer…

Maybe excessive but could you use your existing chargers as is to use solar/PW in the summer and they have another dumb charger wired as mentioned above to use with IO? Not sure if it would work as I have neither solar or battery!

 

[ACarneiro]

I'm another who most likely won't receive rewards for load shifting (but why should I as I already load shift everything I can anyway?)

In the trial phase I usually received a target to reduce a target load of 0.04kWh or even less. Those of us with PV, battery storage and smart EV charging plans are saving enough already so the intention is to encourage everyone else to do their bit.

I agree. I was a bit annoyed earlier but upon reflection I am already in a plenty privileged enough a position and the current savings I make from paying less than 8.5p/KWh on average really are better than most people will ever achieve with this incentive.
Back under my rock I crawl…

 

[browellm]

I wouldn't dismiss the possibility that Octopus *might* reward existing load shifters under this scheme.

The trial was specifically targeted to record the changing behaviour of those people without the tariff and/or means to load shift in order to collect and analyse the data. If this gets rolled out to a "production" environment they could possibly include everyone who can achieve the aims. Definitely not a given, but possibly a wait and see.

 

[MattM76]

I think that Go/IO already incentivise load shifting. That said, with our house (2 fridge-freezers, 2 kids), getting load to around 400w would be a challenge!

When I work from home, the load is around 350-450watts, but when the teenager get home and fires up his TV and PS5, it jumps to around 600-700w and that's without any electric heating or substantial load such as ovens, etc.

Also most of us will happily shift dishwasher, drier and washer but after that, there's not a lot else to shift. No one is going to eat dinner at 1am although I did float the idea when we first switched to Go

 

[WllXM]

I think that Go/IO already incentivise load shifting. That said, with our house (2 fridge-freezers, 2 kids), getting load to around 400w would be a challenge!

When I work from home, the load is around 350-450watts, but when the teenager get home and fires up his TV and PS5, it jumps to around 600-700w and that's without any electric heating or substantial load such as ovens, etc.

Also most of us will happily shift dishwasher, drier and washer but after that, there's not a lot else to shift. No one is going to eat dinner at 1am although I did float the idea when we first switched to Go

I'm wondering what would be the cost of (and existing solutions for) having just a small battery (c. 5kW) without solar, (and install costs obvs) , and just use Go/IO to charge at night and discharge it during peak times (cooking, oven, tv etc)... Or basically for Elon to allow a small portion of the car battery (same, c. 5kW) in bidirectional V2H mode...

 

[rotor2k]

I'm wondering what would be the cost of (and existing solutions for) having just a small battery (c. 5kW) without solar, (and install costs obvs) , and just use Go/IO to charge at night and discharge it during peak times (cooking, oven, tv etc)... Or basically for Elon to allow a small portion of the car battery (same, c. 5kW) in bidirectional V2H mode...

(.40 − .075) × 5kWh peak usage × 365 = £593.13 per year

I've no idea how much a 5kWh battery would cost, but my average consumption seems to be around 10kWh per day.

 

[btc1k]

4

(.40 − .075) × 5kWh peak usage × 365 = £593.13 per year

I've no idea how much a 5kWh battery would cost, but my average consumption seems to be around 10kWh per day.

4.8kWh Pylontech is £2k.

 

[_Dave_]

I’ve been starting to think about this too.
I know nothing about solar or batteries (yet), but when it’s gotten to the point I mildly resent putting on the kettle during the day time, or the kids taking showers, I wonder if a small battery to charge and run some of these kinds of things off might take the edge off the costs (either via solar - and I mean a few panels in the garden, not on our roof, if that’s possible) or via topping up on an IO night rate charge).

We have an electric shower, which is the big cost of our daily peak use.

Funnily enough, we have a combi gas boiler so could always change it to a shower that runs off the hot water I suppose.

But like the batteries and solar, I’ve not ever looked into this option or gas prices, I wouldn’t know how a 15min shower via gas boiler compares to one run off of electric at these Octopus prices (up until the car and move to octopus, my wife handled all the utility bills, I’m guessing that may explain a lot ).

 

[ACarneiro]

During peak hours, gas will all most certainly work out cheaper. Probably about a third of the cost, I should think…
Might work out cheaper for you to just plumb the hot water to the boiler.

 

[SteveJol]

4.8kWh Pylontech is £2k.

Intrigued, any pointers to where I can find more about battery options? I can't see me justifying 10k for a powerwall but 2 x £2k for selling 10kWh is another thing all together.

 

[WllXM]

Intrigued, any pointers to where I can find more about battery options? I can't see me justifying 10k for a powerwall but 2 x £2k for selling 10kWh is another thing all together.

Ditto.
I can get behind 2k. But I suppose the bulk of the cost is also the approved electrician wiring the thing and the « smart » switch to instruct the battery to either replace grid power at peak times, and recharge at night (Go/IO times)…

 

[rotor2k]

I’ve been starting to think about this too.
I know nothing about solar or batteries (yet), but when it’s gotten to the point I mildly resent putting on the kettle during the day time, or the kids taking showers, I wonder if a small battery to charge and run some of these kinds of things off might take the edge off the costs (either via solar - and I mean a few panels in the garden, not on our roof, if that’s possible) or via topping up on an IO night rate charge).

We have an electric shower, which is the big cost of our daily peak use.

Funnily enough, we have a combi gas boiler so could always change it to a shower that runs off the hot water I suppose.

But like the batteries and solar, I’ve not ever looked into this option or gas prices, I wouldn’t know how a 15min shower via gas boiler compares to one run off of electric at these Octopus prices (up until the car and move to octopus, my wife handled all the utility bills, I’m guessing that may explain a lot ).

A 10kW electric shower will cost you £973.33 to run per year taking 4 x 10-minute showers a day: (10/60) × 10 × .40 × 4 × 365

But... we're meant to be forsaking fossil fuels. A better solution would be an immersion hot-water cylinder that you run between 11:30 pm and 5:30 am (the cheap and environmentally-friendly rate). Heating a 250L tank from 0% to 100% takes around 4h with a 3kW element, costing you £109.50 per year: 4 × .075 × 365

 

[Astrape]

Meter data started arriving, have sent an email asking for a Go signup link. Lets see what happens....

Looks like my smart meter arrived a few days late for me to get a Fixed Go Tariff. Interesting to see what they will offer now......

 

[WKUK]

Looks like my smart meter arrived a few days late for me to get a Fixed Go Tariff. Interesting to see what they will offer now......

View attachment 862507

ah

I completed my Switch to Octopus this AM. Didn't tell me they were pulling Go when I spoke to them the other week to start the switch

EDIT:

Just called Octopus. They have no Smart Meter appointments available or any EV tariffs I can move on to. But I am now a customer

Not ideal