Octopus Energy Saving Sessions

[Stranger Dings]

Does anyone know how the Octopus ”Power Hour” energy saving sessions are actually calculated?

I’ve taken part in all of them, but the results just seem totally random.

I’ve had sessions where we’ve switched off as much as we can and gone out, only to be told that we didn’t manage to save anything.

Some sessions, we’ve made very small savings, Including one where virtually everything was switched off and the whole family was in another country.

One session I forgot it was happening despite signing up, only to be told I’d managed to save 93% of my normal usage and be credited with over £16 off!

I’ll continue to sign up for them and don’t really do it expecting to save much as we are already quite energy efficient. It all just seems so random.

 

[PITA]

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[ACarneiro]

Not sure if this is correct but it's how I set mine early this morning. If it matters, initially I set up the new mid-peak period at £4.00 in and out and saved it, and later changed just the import to the correct lower value.

View attachment 994590

That's really interesting. It just completely refuses to have a higher sell than buy price for me. Tried adding the mid peak as well, tried reducing the peak rate afterwards, nothing seems to work.
I wonder why that is....

 

[ACarneiro]

probably could.
but this would mean that my consumption would be at 30p /kwh..

oh but I would be paid 4 gbp per kwh?!

Yes, definitely worth it!

 

[yessuz]

ok, I am ready

4.5 kwh @ 4 gbp = 18 gbp/ not too shabby.

on top of that - I have the sun now, so topping up battery to the 100%

 

[Js1977]

Not sure if this is correct but it's how I set mine early this morning. If it matters, initially I set up the new mid-peak period at £4.00 in and out and saved it, and later changed just the import to the correct lower value.

View attachment 994590

Have you got solar?

 

[KennethS]

That's really interesting. It just completely refuses to have a higher sell than buy price for me. Tried adding the mid peak as well, tried reducing the peak rate afterwards, nothing seems to work.
I wonder why that is....

I recall having that issue when I initially was setting up the super off peak rate as 0.08 in and 0.15 out. Don't recall how I got around that. When I set up the additional rate period this morning, it first wanted the input rate and as I typed 4.00 it automatically filled in the export at the same rate of 4.00. Later I wasn't happy with the incorrect import tariff so I amended it to 0.31 and it didn't kick up a fuss.

 

[KennethS]

Have you got solar?

Yes.

 

[PITA]

ok, I am ready

4.5 kwh @ 4 gbp = 18 gbp/ not too shabby.

on top of that - I have the sun now, so topping up battery to the 100%

Yep... sunshine here to. Nice perfect day.

At 17:00 we'll probably have a Grid failure and my over-enthusiastic Gateway2 will blow up our street.

 

[yessuz]

Yep... sunshine here to. Nice perfect day.

At 17:00 we'll probably have a Grid failure and my over-enthusiastic Gateway2 will blow up our street.

that would be epic...

 

[Js1977]

Yes.

I assume you have FIT payment too?.... Reason for asking is that under the conditions of your settings, it will work fine with no interaction (if you have your export set to all) .

My example is that I have mine set on peak to buy at 30p and sell at 45p and its solar export only. It means at under normal conditions it forces all the solar to be exported (15p sell vs 7.5p buy).. but this means the at 17:00 will have to manually toggle on export all and and 18:30 toggle it back to solar only.

 

[KennethS]

I assume you have FIT payment too?.... Reason for asking is that under the conditions of your settings, it will work fine with no interaction (if you have your export set to all) .

My example is that I have mine set on peak to buy at 30p and sell at 45p and its solar export only. It means at under normal conditions it forces all the solar to be exported (15p sell vs 7.5p buy).. but this means the at 17:00 will have to manually toggle on export all and and 18:30 toggle it back to solar only.

Thanks, very helpful. I have it on Time-Based Control, export everything and grid charging allowed. The only change I made for today was adding an additional rate period for the 5-6.30pm event today. I will either delete that later this evening or mirror the usual peak rates so it may be less steps for the next time they do one of these. I've always wondered why the powerwalls don't dump any excess beyond my set minimum in the lead-up to 11.30pm but it hasn't been a sufficient price spread for me to explore further. However at £4.00 per kWh for export I would like to participate!

We have a 3.5kW PV system on FIT and recently added a separate 2.4kW system that is not on FIT.

 

[Js1977]

We have a 3.5kW PV system on FIT and recently added a separate 2.4kW system that is not on FIT.

Im not that versed to the FIT other than if you have it, you cant have some other perks per say. However, if you have octopus outgoing @ 15p sell and IO at 7.5p buy, you ideally want to dump all your solar to the grid (unless your battery does not cover you for the whole of your peak period)

Ideally, the option to export all or just solar should be within the parameters when you set you peak, off peak etc pricing settings and then you would not have to intervene.

All things being constant Which IO isn't , the powerwall would probably eventually make good of the settings but AI as good as it is cant really do the man maths

 

[Mrklaw]

if you have FIT, my understanding is they don't use the export meter at all. They have a separately monitored generation meter to send info on generation (for FIT payments) and deemed exports (only needs generation data).

The export meter (if you have a smart meter) will be picking up both arrays but if you want paying you need to be on an export tariff (SEG). This means giving up the deemed export part, so if you self-consume a lot of solar it may not be worth it - need to do the maths.


This savings though I still don't understand how it works. Givenergy/Axel and Loop who are doing these schemes aren't SEG providers but they need the Export MPAN number and to be able to connect to it. Does this mean you have to have SEG in place for that export MPAN to be active? I dont have SEG but I do have an export MPAN number. But I don't know if its active or not.

I'm going to do a forced discharge today to maybe help find out..

 

[KennethS]

Im not that versed to the FIT other than if you have it, you cant have some other perks per say. However, if you have octopus outgoing @ 15p sell and IO at 7.5p buy, you ideally want to dump all your solar to the grid (unless your battery does not cover you for the whole of your peak period)

Ideally, the option to export all or just solar should be within the parameters when you set you peak, off peak etc pricing settings and then you would not have to intervene.

The deemed export under the FIT scheme has to be terminated in order to be eligible for any other export tariff. I did that long ago when signing up for the Tesla Energy Plan when it still existed.

 

[Js1977]

The deemed export under the FIT scheme has to be terminated in order to be eligible for any other export tariff. I did that long ago when signing up for the Tesla Energy Plan when it still existed.

No FIT for you then. Have you got the octopus outgoing tariff or still on the tesla energy plan?... Not that I would be able to advise. All I know about the tesla energy plan is that it would control your battery...

 

[Mrklaw]

No FIT for you then. Have you got the octopus outgoing tariff or still on the tesla energy plan?... Not that I would be able to advise. All I know about the tesla energy plan is that it would control your battery...

I think they ended the TEP.

They now have a similar thing with givenergy though.

 

[KennethS]

No FIT for you then. Have you got the octopus outgoing tariff or still on the tesla energy plan?... Not that I would be able to advise. All I know about the tesla energy plan is that it would control your battery...

We continue to receive the generation portion of FIT. The Tesla Energy Plan no longer exists and when it ended we switched to Intelligent Octopus Go and the Octopus Outgoing tariffs. We were sad that the TEP ended -- it worked very well for us.

 

[Js1977]

We continue to receive the generation portion of FIT. The Tesla Energy Plan no longer exists and when it ended we switched to Intelligent Octopus Go and the Octopus Outgoing tariffs. We were sad that the TEP ended -- it worked very well for us.

When I had the powerwalll installed, they put in a generation meter (as part of the MCS I believe) thing. I can only think of this as a legacy from when fit existed as it will never be used for anything otherwise since most tariffs these days rely on smart meters that record everything.

Ie, I would say if you still have some FIT, and outgoing tarif, You get paid twice for your fit portion through outgoing unless the fit portion is isolated from your smart meter or export restriction done within a device... All very interesting.

 

[Mrklaw]

When I had the powerwalll installed, they put in a generation meter (as part of the MCS I believe) thing. I can only think of this as a legacy from when fit existed as it will never be used for anything otherwise since most tariffs these days rely on smart meters that record everything.

Ie, I would say if you still have some FIT, and outgoing tarif, You get paid twice for your fit portion through outgoing unless the fit portion is isolated from your smart meter or export restriction done within a device... All very interesting.

you wouldn't. FIT pays solely on generation through a generation meter. It doesn't care how much you export or import. You could self-consume 100% of the solar and still get the FIT payment (from government pov its still reducing net demand by that many kwh I guess?)

Deemed export uses the generation meter /2 and pays you an 'outgoing' rate but it has no idea how much is exported - hence 'deemed'. Again you could self consume 100% of the solar and still receive deemed export for half your generation.

Outgoing tariff is based solely on export using the smart meter export mode - so what leaves the house. It doesn't use the generation meter. Its the more modern option now FIT is gone.

FIT can carry on regardless for the term of your agreement (25 years?). The only choice is whether you stay with deemed, or agree to forego that in return for a higher outgoing rate but based on your actual export

 

[ringi]

Interestingly, I can't seem to set my Export tariff to £4 for the Saving Session. I get the error "Invalid Prices: Sell price should not be greater than buy price for any period type"

Then just pretend the buy price is £4.30 as that is what you get for not importing.