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.

 

[Pink Duck]

It’s the wrong day for this, it should be tomorrow with higher forecast peak!

41.57 MW expected today, 43.8 MW tomorrow. Perhaps they’ll change their mind.

 

[WllXM]

There is an Anticipatory Notice for a test session today.
Bit surprised, really.... I wonder they're testing how close they can put "last minute" requests and still see a meaningful impact...

I suppose the same folks that have solar / battery & are interested enough to have subscribed to Octopus Sessions Alerts also are tech savvy enough to have it on a smart home setup so they can schedule it all from a phone in a couple taps, even if away from home. Therefore I would believe that just a couple hours notice would be all it takes...

If I'm guessing the next steps they'll probably leverage what they do with Intelligent Octopus and offer you to connect your powerwall & al. to their Kraken API so they can automatically schedule export and cut all power hungry items for you.. (With your consent at first, and then in a couple years, whether you want it or not... )

 

[Mrklaw]

I suppose the same folks that have solar / battery & are interested enough to have subscribed to Octopus Sessions Alerts also are tech savvy enough to have it on a smart home setup so they can schedule it all from a phone in a couple taps, even if away from home. Therefore I would believe that just a couple hours notice would be all it takes...

for the battery owners and tech enthusiasts sure. but I'd bet a big chunk is normal people moving their dinner time or turning the washing machine off. Those will find it harder to adjust at short notice I think.

If I'm guessing the next steps they'll probably leverage what they do with Intelligent Octopus and offer you to connect your powerwall & al. to their Kraken API so they can automatically schedule export and cut all power hungry items for you.. (With your consent at first, and then in a couple years, whether you want it or not... )

I'm surprised they didn't already do this - they have intelligent flux with givenergy batteries where they do this (I wonder how that works for users in DFS sessions?), so they could support any users with a givenergy battery. But it turns out givenergy have their own scheme which does it automatically for you.

 

[PITA]

I suppose the same folks that have solar / battery & are interested enough to have subscribed to Octopus Sessions Alerts also are tech savvy enough to have it on a smart home setup so they can schedule it all from a phone in a couple taps, even if away from home. Therefore I would believe that just a couple hours notice would be all it takes...

If I'm guessing the next steps they'll probably leverage what they do with Intelligent Octopus and offer you to connect your powerwall & al. to their Kraken API so they can automatically schedule export and cut all power hungry items for you.. (With your consent at first, and then in a couple years, whether you want it or not... )

Well... in the last 4 weeks we've now been paid on four Savings Sessions and a month SEG export amounting to £123.10 in total.

That buys back 1.6 MWh of electricity at 7.5p

I'm really looking forward to 2024 SEG payments with Solar Exporting, plus Saving Sessions in Winter.

Total game changer

 

[Js1977]

I'm surprised they didn't already do this

Isn't this how the Tesla tariff used to work?

 

[Pink Duck]

Pulling the main fuse for a hard reset over 15 minutes seems to have restored Smart DCC connectivity, to point that Loop Energy were able to recover missing data from early November. Octopus now doing a ‘nudge’ of their own to fill the gaps, so will wait for that before asking about goodwill gesture over missed sessions.

 

[WllXM]

for the battery owners and tech enthusiasts sure. but I'd bet a big chunk is normal people moving their dinner time or turning the washing machine off. Those will find it harder to adjust at short notice I think.

I might be wrong but I assumed the main contributing factor rather was 10k power users with home storage batteries sending 7kWh to the grid, rather than say, 100k users not turning on the stove and maybe saving 0.5kWh each?

For the Dec 5th session for instance, Octopus mentioned 119MWh saved, but have left out how many users participated.

 

[ACarneiro]

I might be wrong but I assumed the main contributing factor rather was 10k power users with home storage batteries sending 7kWh to the grid, rather than say, 100k users not turning on the stove and maybe saving 0.5kWh each?

For the Dec 5th session for instance, Octopus mentioned 119MWh saved, but have left out how many users participated.

It really would be interesting to have a deeper breakdown indeed.
Octopus don't necessarily know whether their customers have batteries installed, maybe these tests sessions are a way for them to find that out.

 

[Pink Duck]

It’s on for 17:00–18:00 Test event today for all providers.

 

[NewbieT]

It really would be interesting to have a deeper breakdown indeed.
Octopus don't necessarily know whether their customers have batteries installed, maybe these tests sessions are a way for them to find that out.

But they definitely know who saved vs exported. Given it’s dark surely it’s a safe assumption export = batteries.

 

[WllXM]

But they definitely know who saved vs exported. Given it’s dark surely it’s a safe assumption export = batteries.

Are there many people who have solar without batteries?

 

[KennethS]

Are there many people who have solar without batteries?

We did for quite a number of years.

 

[yessuz]

It’s on for 17:00–18:00 Test event today for all providers.

I cannot see the notification in Octopus app

 

[Pink Duck]

They haven’t enabled it on their system as yet, will be a late Surprise Session (if they accept the bid by 14:00).

    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Saving Sessions event not found.",
            "locations": [
                {
                    "line": 2,
                    "column": 3
                }
            ],
            "path": [
                "joinSavingSessionsEvent"
            ],
            "extensions": {
                "errorType": "NOT_FOUND",
                "errorCode": "KT-GB-5114",
                "errorDescription": "The Saving Sessions event could not be found."
            }
        }
    ],
    "data": {
        "joinSavingSessionsEvent": null
    }

 

[Pink Duck]

 

[ACarneiro]

View attachment 998601

Forgot I had to opt in! Thanks for the reminder, that would have pissed me off!

 

[yessuz]

I am thinking of the way to track all the sessions in Home Assistant and to have automated changes to Inverter based on those.

anyone have any work around?

 

[ACarneiro]

I am thinking of the way to track all the sessions in Home Assistant and to have automated changes to Inverter based on those.

anyone have any work around?

I get the impression @Pink Duck might be your man...

 

[Pink Duck]

Octopus Energy APIs — Octopus Energy API 1.0 documentation

https://api.octopus.energy/v1/graphql

Query.savingSessions

 

[rumballd]

View attachment 998601

Is anyone else having trouble opting in? It's 16:55 and the 'opt in' button in the app's Savings Session dialog isn't doing anything except registering a click. The same thing happens in a desktop browser and mobile devices and the 'more info' button just gives an error message.