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.

 

[BushFox]

They may have fixed both issues potentially. If so, leaves me at a loss for why Octopus aren’t calculating correctly. They have been within 8 OctoPoints of all my own calculations to date. Plus just noticed I am in Gold position for the League of 17th Jan

I’m not in this league table. How do you get on? From my savings points I should be around 105 for jan 17th. Not that I’m competitive……….

 

[phil4]

I’m not in this league table. How do you get on? From my savings points I should be around 105 for jan 17th. Not that I’m competitive……….

I guess you sign up with your octopus api details to the streamlit app.

 

[Pink Duck]

Only your Octopus developer key is required and that is just kept locally within the URL, not cached or uploaded.

Can submit to the League your determined OctoPoints against an alias of your choosing.

 

[phil4]

Only your Octopus developer key is required and that is just kept locally within the URL, not cached or uploaded.

You do realise that by putting that key in the URL you are uploading it, it can be cached and that you are trusting the developer?

 

[Pink Duck]

I’ve already checked the codebase to see what it is doing and it is doing things right, so yes, I do trust the approach of the developer.

There’s a separate ID used for the league table submissions. The URL is amended client side once entered and applied, can be bookmarked, but always come clean to the site to not include in within your GET request that could be logged by a server somewhere.

This app never stores your API key. If you have any concerns you can check out the source code for the app, and please by all means 'Regenerate' your key at the link above after using this.

 

[phil4]

I'm not saying you're wrong, but you've managed to access the running code? And anything you put in the URL is going to be logged by the webserver regardless of the code running.

I'm not saying you need to trust the developer's code, more that you need to trust that the developer won't do anything you wouldn't want with your key.

And yes, I'm being ever so very picky with the above.

 

[ACarneiro]

Looks like anticipatory notice for a test Saving Session today…

 

[Pink Duck]

Almost certainly 17:00–18:00 all-provider test event if so.

Blimey, only 200 MW requirement, so brace yourselves for less than £2.25/kWh reward!

Clearly an arbitrary event as there’s a forecast of 23.6 GW margin during peak tonight.

 

[thewishy]

Surely there are super-healthy margins tonight with the amount of wind on the grid?...

 

[ACarneiro]

Yes, bi

Surely there are super-healthy margins tonight with the amount of wind on the grid?...

I was thinking that.
Bit of a weird day to run a test… ‍

@Pink Duck was right on the money, as usual. Requirement has just been published.

 

[thewishy]

Just saw the 200mw requirement and zero guaranteed acceptance. I read that as an opportunity to see how low bids will go for a small requirement on a day where the outcome really doesn't matter. Clearly at 200mw we're going to have energy providers who need to sit this one out.

 

[Pink Duck]

Well, this is news to me…

 

[Js1977]

Came across this yesterday and thought you mostly spoiled all the surprises

 

[thewishy]

~160MW procured volume at an average of about £1.89/kWh

 

[Pink Duck]

A blistering 157 MW and 161 MW procured. Starting to wonder if they’ll ask people to do this without reward at all.

[Settled figures come after the event] - or £1.89/kWh reward as I made it.

Breaking news - It’s going to be £1.75/kWh! (with Octopus only taking 7.6% cut this time)

 

[notmeguv]

My home assistant integration has just automatically joined a saving session. No other notifications yet.

*edit - it’s just appeared in the Octopus app

 

[thewishy]

It's up on Octopus at £1.75/kWh, so clearly they were included in the session, and got a slightly better price than average (Others have suggested that they might not be taking their customary 25% for this one)

(Edit, seems that the utilisation report has been updated, but the summary page doesn't show a correct last update... Lots of suppliers sitting this one out after bidding around the £3/kWh mark and being rejected. Which is probably the whole point of this specific test. Looks like octopus bid £1.75 and are passing it all on to the customers for this event)

 

[thewishy]

[Settled figures come after the event] - or 94.7 p/kWh reward as I made it.

I came up with that figure initially, but it's a ~160MW reduction for *half* an hour, so you need to 2x for a per MWh price

 

[ACarneiro]

View attachment 1014636

Well, this is news to me…

Where did you find that? Have they emailed you? Never seen it before....

 

[Pink Duck]

Appeared in online website Octoplus page, plus also on live socials just now.

One 888,888 OctoPoints drawn prize (£1,111.11) plus "Introducing streaks - you’ll get 8 more chances to win for each Session you join in a row” plus 100 OctoPoints ‘STREAK BONUS’ (in shouty caps for some reason) so presumably not for those opting in the first time today?

My own results for tonight will be 28,245 OctoPoints worth £35.30