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.

 

[ringi]

I'm not complaining, but a >20 fold return within hours just seems a bit bonkers. It feels as if any market with that kind of arbitrage possibility is slightly broken and/or ripe to make a killing on.

That not an unreasonable return relative to how few times a year you can do it and the time it takes to setup along with your capital investment in batteries

 

[btc1k]

Last nights session was strange. We never import anything during this time so no 'savings' to be made. But we did export at full rate - limited to only 3.6kW - and earnt over £6 (at £1.75 per kWh) for the savings session plus another 50p for the actual export via Outgoing Agile.

But just 6-7h later we were able to recharge the Powerwalls at 6-7p per kWh via Octopus Agile. So 25p total cost to replace those exported 3.6kWh - maybe 30p to take charging losses into account.

I'm not complaining, but a >20 fold return within hours just seems a bit bonkers. It feels as if any market with that kind of arbitrage possibility is slightly broken and/or ripe to make a killing on.

I'd like to see the maths behind "making a killing" on the return from Saving Sessions versus the capital costs of the battery system....

 

[Pink Duck]

It’s more like the Saving Sessions rewards helps to keep the zero bills going through winter, reducing repayment time.

Around £565 credit this season paying off 7% of a Powerwall

 

[Js1977]

I'd like to see the maths behind "making a killing" on the return from Saving Sessions versus the capital costs of the battery system....

I would just put it down to "as a matter of speech" to be fair.

We all know that we make a killing fuelling our cars on the cheap

 

[btc1k]

It’s more like the Saving Sessions rewards helps to keep the zero bills going through winter, reducing repayment time.

Around £565 credit this season paying off 7% of a Powerwall

Wow, £565 is a lot - how do you manage that with a 5kw discharge limit from a single PW?

 

[Js1977]

Wow, £565 is a lot - how do you manage that with a 5kw discharge limit from a single PW?

That is indeed impressive and not possible with one powerwall alone or even two or three. Can only assume that he has actual savings on top of that

 

[Pink Duck]

Hard to determine credit fully given those initial two weeks of solar generation excess with no SEG contract reward while waiting for MPAN, but after that a considerable amount of 15 p/kWh export on IOG (£364.64) and before that 32.01 p/kWh on Flux (£366.46) since 23rd June 2023.

 

[Pink Duck]

New week, new forecast. So now Tue 20th Feb looks optimal for final? Saving Session - if National Grid ESO select rationally.

 

[btc1k]

Anyone else still waiting for their points from the session on 2/2 ?

 

[PITA]

Anyone else still waiting for their points from the session on 2/2 ?

Yep... me

Think I'm on a 11 Session Kill Streak... with about 120,000 Octoblasts.

One more to unlock the Orbital Cannon...

 

[Pink Duck]

If anyone had the points for the 2nd or 8th of Feb then I think we would have heard about it on here by now.

Notably National Grid ESO themselves have yet to update the Settlement figures from their Utilisation Report like they did for all the others.

On an (un?)related issue, it appears several people have reported receiving previous bills being credited back to account. Myself included.
- may hint at something having gone wrong with Smart DCC or Octopus Energy’s Data Aggregator provider or just Octopus themselves.

 

[YYY2022]

On an (un?)related issue, it appears several people have reported receiving previous bills being credited back to account. Myself included.
- may hint at something having gone wrong with Smart DCC or Octopus Energy’s Data Aggregator provider or just Octopus themselves.

I had this and sent them an email. They responded with 'Apologies about this, our system has had a minor hiccup with a few accounts where it will rewind a bill without any issue or reason. Our tech team is currently working on patching this issue which will be resolved in the next few days.'
My credited bill has now been reapplied to my account.

 

[Oxid8ter]

Well that was a massive flop for my export. Set to Time of Use which only discharges to load. Changed to ToU-Sale (discharge to load or grid) when I realised and it still didn't send anything to the grid... Checked the time window for discharge, checked the inverter time/date etc... all looked fine.

Even though now outside the session I want to know why it didn't work, so been playing with settings and I just cannot get the battery to discharge to the grid...

I'm baffled... No idea what I'm meant to do now. Best get on to the inverter/battery manufacturer before next year's sessions!!

Looping back onto this with an update (or lack there of), I emailed the manufacturer (SAJ Electric) the following day but am yet to hear back. I imagine as they are based in Shanghai they are likely closed for Chinese New Year at present.

I firmly believe that my issue is that the app has additional functionality, but the inverter does not have the firmware to understand it. If I connect via the legacy app to my inverter via Bluetooth the "TOU-Sale" mode does not exist, whereby on the new app does have it. Although this is likely just a Software discrepancy in that the legacy app has not been updated, I am hoping that if/when SAJ push a Firmware update it will allow me to use TOU-Sale successfully. I doubt that will be before the next Saving Session though

 

[YYY2022]

Anyone else still waiting for their points from the session on 2/2 ?

Mine have arrived on my account this morning, for the 2 Feb session.

 

[Pink Duck]

Mine still pending, but that news gives hope that rest of us will shortly.

My 2nd Feb points just arrived at 14:54!

 

[Paul72G]

My results have just dropped , for the 2nd February session

 

[yessuz]

yay, got mine as well

fully automated. full joy.

 

[Js1977]

Here here....only just got both for the 2nd and the 8th

 

[Jonathan Mason]

I have solarPV and a Powerwall, and am with Octopus (Intelligent Octopus Go tarif). So my opportunity to save on the Winter Cahsback schemes is very limited, as I actually use nothing during those hours as far as the grid is concernd anyway - it's all just powerwall use!. But this year they have introduced battery discharging too - so the opportunity to cash in is great!. BUT, sadly I cannot get my powerwall to discharge during the sessions. It will only send solar generation to the grid (which during winter between 4-6pm is virtually nil!)

Has anyone yet figured out how to discharge your Powerwall at will?

Thanks
J.

 

[Jonathan Mason]

I didn't sign up to the Octoplus points scheme fo rthe cash back events, as they dont actually give cash back, just their own version of points, which I dont feel are worth much. Insetad I have HUGO manage my cashbacks for me - they pay out the cash, and take a 20% cut (which I'm really quite happy with).