Tesla Energy Plan

[Lx2m3]

I will soon be having PV and a Powerwall installed and am considering the various Octopus tariffs.
I understand that when on the Tesla Energy Plan you hand over control of your system, but does that include the charging of your vehicle?
Most of the time that wouldn’t be a problem for me, but what if I needed an immediate charge? Also can I still select a timed slot for charging?

 

[WannabeOwner]

Tesla Energy Plan

My understanding:

You can't increase the Reserve above 20% (actually it might be fixed at 20%). I consider 10% sufficient as my power cuts are either
a) a couple of seconds
b) 4 hours when someone digs through a cable in the road (20% reserve not enough for for me in that instance)
c) Scheduled

For Scheduled, i.e. known in advance, I increase the reserve to 100% ... but you can't do that on TEP (except for Storm Watch where it will do that for you - whether you have TEP or not ... and when gets the Storm Watch notification it will immediately start charging to 100% (regardless of tariff, and IME that occurs a long time before the threat, so could probably / usually delay and take advantage of Off Peak). Maybe for the couple of times a year I get Storm Watch I'm overthinking that!

You can't "dump" any excess to avoid Export e.g. to Immersion or using Zappi to trickle charge the car, .

From what I have read of TEP what I hear is that it exports during the evening. My house consumption is high, and I will fully discharge my batteries from when the sun goes down until midnight ... so if I was exporting during that time I would have to buy-back energy later in the evening. Export and Import are priced the same (ignoring losses) so maybe that is moot, but I haven't got my head around it. If it means better utilisation of North Sea Wind (i.e. less curtailment) I guess I'd be happy with that.

People whose usage allows them to charge their PowerWall overnight and then it lasts them the whole day, until next off-peak rate, would be disadvantaged (by TEP) because currently buying at, say, 7.5p Octopus cheap rate and charging the battery to last the whole day, but under TEP would buy at 12p rate - albeit any time of day or night. (That's probably moot because you need PV for TEP ... but I suspect a similar "I don't buy from Grid during the day" users, with PV, exist)

I don't think the extra cycling of battery, under TEP, is a worry. Particularly if, basically, TEP discharges during evening - that's charge-once / discharge-once a day, which is what most people probably do anyway.

I've had PowerWall for a while, but only enough PV to need to do something about "Export" recently, so I haven't found an optimum as yet, but I'm beginning to think that I need a car with bidirectional charging so that I have a much bigger battery available for a) days with superb sunshine and also b) the ability to do some decent arbitrage on export prices ... but for that route I will want to keep the money, not to give it to Tesla

 

[btc1k]

I will soon be having PV and a Powerwall installed and am considering the various Octopus tariffs.
I understand that when on the Tesla Energy Plan you hand over control of your system, but does that include the charging of your vehicle?
Most of the time that wouldn’t be a problem for me, but what if I needed an immediate charge? Also can I still select a timed slot for charging?

Does not include handing over charging of your EV. You charge it whenever you like at 12p.

The way I look at TEP is this:
12p import, 12p export.
So effectively your solar is 100% utilised by you - any real time excess is sent to the grid and you buy it back later, effectively net zero cost.
You hand over PW2 to Tesla - so forget it's even there - the grid becomes your battery.
If you generate 5000kWh on your solar, and your consumption is say 11,000kWh, then you will "use" all of your own solar (5000kw at 0p), and buy the remaining 6000kWh at 12p.

I think in summer, Octopus Go will be cheaper because you can use solar in the day, and charge battery to run you through the night.
In Winter, TEP might be cheaper if your peak usage is high - given much lower solar and your ability to shift usage to Off Peak.

One big benefit of TEP is you don't have to worry about any of it. You just buy at 12p anytime which is practically a third the price of a variable tariff at say 35-40p.

I have solar being installed in May with a PW2 coming in October. Will keep Go Faster through the winter and see how I get on....

Am also looking at a heat pump potentially - with that increased kWh demand, TEP could be quite useful.

 

[Dilly]

As a ‘new’ user, sadly there is no Feed in Tariff but you can sell export albeit for around 5-7p per kWh (rates may have changed)
Whether you go with TEP depends upon the amount of PV you have and your home usage.
If your setup leaves you purchasing at peak rates with some frequency whilst exporting occasionally, then TEP is probably worthwhile.
What you have to measure is how low your use of peak rate can be and judge that against the balanced TEP rates
With regard to storm watch, there will be an ‘opt out’ button when it operates, which you can toggle On/off as your situation merits.
As far as charging goes, you can charge whenever as you are either being paid or paying the same price for all your power under TEP

 

[init6]

I will soon be having PV and a Powerwall installed and am considering the various Octopus tariffs.
I understand that when on the Tesla Energy Plan you hand over control of your system, but does that include the charging of your vehicle?
Most of the time that wouldn’t be a problem for me, but what if I needed an immediate charge? Also can I still select a timed slot for charging?

I can't see any restriction on how you use the electricity. The only limitations are using devices that utilise any excess solar energy, e.g. smart immersion heaters.

 

[init6]

With regard to storm watch, there will be an ‘opt out’ button when it operates, which you can toggle On/off as your situation merits.

This only works if you have storm watch enabled before you go onto TEP:

If joining Tesla Energy Plan with ‘Storm Watch’ already enabled in the Tesla smartphone app, this functionality will continue by default.

Please note that once under the plan, Storm watch mode can not be enabled/disabled from the Tesla smartphone app.

 

[btc1k]

I can't see any restriction on how you use the electricity. The only limitations are using devices that utilise any excess solar energy, e.g. smart immersion heaters.

For sure.

It's getting your head around the fact that there is no benefit for solar diversion to heaters or car etc.

TEP sells the power into the grid for 12p, you draw it back when you need it for 12p.
It's actually better than diverting excess solar into say your hot water tank, when you might not need it, and then experience losses.

 

[btc1k]

If you have high peak consumption, then TEP looks great.

Looking at a heat pump, say with 4000kWh replacing gas heating, most of that would be peak usage, 35p vs 12p

 

[Fred2]

Have a heatpump, can confirm - it's great.

It's also great when it's very sunny - there's only so much you store in the car if you don't do that many miles (or you're not at home during the working day) etc. Octopus Go can't be combined with the octopus outgoing tariffs (which pays 7.5p/kWh), so i think you'd have to use their 4.1p/kWh tariff for exports.

An earlier iteration (Pre april 21 I think) requested that you didn't charge your car 4pm-7pm, but I don't think it was ever enforced. I think that was obsoleted by the limit on consumption from grid per PW per year.

 

[btc1k]

Have a heatpump, can confirm - it's great.

It's also great when it's very sunny - there's only so much you store in the car if you don't do that many miles (or you're not at home during the working day) etc. Octopus Go can't be combined with the octopus outgoing tariffs (which pays 7.5p/kWh), so i think you'd have to use their 4.1p/kWh tariff for exports.

An earlier iteration (Pre april 21 I think) requested that you didn't charge your car 4pm-7pm, but I don't think it was ever enforced. I think that was obsoleted by the limit on consumption from grid per PW per year.

They have "daytime" consumption limit of 9,500kWh for the tariff... But that's net import so it's actually quite high, a "normal" consumer would find it hard to get there even with heat pump... assuming you still try and shift high usage (such as car), into the off peak period..

 

[Mrklaw]

Just seems odd that you’re spending 9-10k on a battery and effectively then ignoring it because you have net metering.

 

[Dilly]

Just seems odd that you’re spending 9-10k on a battery and effectively then ignoring it because you have net metering.

That‘s one of the joys of TEP…

 

[btc1k]

Just seems odd that you’re spending 9-10k on a battery and effectively then ignoring it because you have net metering.

It gives you the benefit of not faffing around, and shifting usage.

But if you prefer to do that, instead of TEP doing, it, that's your choice vs Go,

 

[ianhailey]

Does anyone have a full years worth of TEP stats? Also some people seem to have the PW export disabled and some do not, seems inconsistent.

 

[KennethS]

Does anyone have a full years worth of TEP stats? Also some people seem to have the PW export disabled and some do not, seems inconsistent.

I’ve been on the TEP nearly two years. I’m not aware of any option to disable PW export. It seems a fundamental aspect of the TEP for which you benefit from attractive electric pricing 24/7.

 

[ianhailey]

I’ve been on the TEP nearly two years. I’m not aware of any option to disable PW export. It seems a fundamental aspect of the TEP for which you benefit from attractive electric pricing 24/7.

My solar installer told me a lot of his customers have it disabled and even Tesla Energy representatives have export disabled. As someone who has export enabled might you be able to be able share your yearly import / export / solar gen / consumption stats? Perhaps it’s a non issue and something I should ignore and just go ahead with TEP anyway!

 

[KennethS]

My solar installer told me a lot of his customers have it disabled and even Tesla Energy representatives have export disabled. As someone who has export enabled might you be able to be able share your yearly import / export / solar gen / consumption stats? Perhaps it’s a non issue and something I should ignore and just go ahead with TEP anyway!

I will try to find a summary of my experience I have posted in the past and send it via private message (to not encumber this thread). In terms of my yearly figures I would suggest it won't be much use for anyone else. We all have our own usage profiles etc. We are a high consumption home and, for us, the TEP has worked out well. My renewal is in late July (going into the third year) and the new proposed rate is still dramatically below what we would pay under any other plan of which I am aware. 11.24p/kWh and 22p daily standing charge. I am told the rate reflects a loyalty discount but have no way to know for certain.

I think your installer is telling porkies, sorry to say. The plan requires you give Tesla/Octopus control over your battery. You can set a 20% reserve but that's the only hold-back I know of.

 

[ianhailey]

I will try to find a summary of my experience I have posted in the past and send it via private message (to not encumber this thread). In terms of my yearly figures I would suggest it won't be much use for anyone else. We all have our own usage profiles etc. We are a high consumption home and, for us, the TEP has worked out well. My renewal is in late July (going into the third year) and the new proposed rate is still dramatically below what we would pay under any other plan of which I am aware. 11.24p/kWh and 22p daily standing charge. I am told the rate reflects a loyalty discount but have no way to know for certain.

I think your installer is telling porkies, sorry to say. The plan requires you give Tesla/Octopus control over your battery. You can set a 20% reserve but that's the only hold-back I know of.

Thanks Kenneth.

 

[btc1k]

Wowzer, TEP just went from 12p to 24p in my area for a new quote...

 

[Mrklaw]

Wowzer, TEP just went from 12p to 24p in my area for a new quote...

Wow. I wondered if octopus could introduce that plan for non PW battery owners? But not sure I want it now

I suppose it depends on your solar generation vs consumption as the battery is irrelevant for your personal use.

Average household usage (not including space heating..) approx 5000kwh a year. So around 5kw south facing solar should generate about that much across a year and you would be roughly net zero on electric cost