Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Mister_G

[Deleted User] said:

masonic said:

Deleted_User said:

Who thinks that tariffs will drop again once this is over?
Or are we in it for the longterm? 

EV ownership is becoming more common, and Octopus is becoming a large energy supplier. I can't really see how cross-subsidising EV ownership at the expense of regular customers can continue long term (it works when the subsidised users are in a tiny minority). In the short term Go and Go Faster rates may fall back close to where they were.

As more people make use of low demand/low price periods then it follows that they will become high demand/high price. Personally, I believe that we will see some levelling off of prices but from what I read no analysts are predicting massive reductions. Despite the government arguing that we have diverse supply, the problem is that the highest bidder gets the energy. A lot of the LPG that used to head Westwards is now going to Asia. 

I think you mean LNG.

worrywart_3

When I rang octopus mid august the advisor said to me she recommended everyone go on the go tarrif as it’s their most reasonable tarrif. I’m on it and I don’t have a ev however I do have a electric stove that’s on all the time.

worrywart_3

savers_united said:

Umiamz said:

masonic said:

Umiamz said:

That's what I was thinking but was checking to see if anybody knew for sure.

It would be safe to assume that in virtually every instance of a supplier failing, there will be customers who have another fuel supplied by a different supplier. I've been through two SoLR processes and in both cases there was never any question of those with different suppliers being forced into switching from an operational third party supplier with valid licence to the SoLR. I don't believe there are any provisions in the consumer contracts that would permit such a seizure to take place and any such switch could be stopped at the customer's request (as can a switch to the SoLR if you are in the process of another switch or have already switched away). IMHO it is far more likely you'd face such a scenario because Octopus and Zog go bust around the same time and share a SoLR, and I'm pretty confident that's not going to happen.

Yes, this makes sense.

The other thing that's occurred to me is that you're going to be pretty limited once you're gas-only with a SoLR. There are not many companies you can switch to without switching your electricity too. I guess if the worst came to the worst you could always switch it back to Octopus where your electricity still is.

There are certainly only a limited number of suppliers who will sign you up for Gas only. When I signed up for Octopus Go I kept my Gas with Octopus as very few other options, EDF and ZOG the only ones at the time offering Gas only switch at a decent rate. So if ZOG do go to the wall there will be less options to OFGEM when finding another supplier, and suppliers know that no one is gas only, so will want both supplies.

ZOG is a concern by the increase they have made recently, are they trying to claw back some losses on earlier tariffs. 

I’m with so energy for gas 

savers_united

masonic said:

savers_united said:

Dolor said:

masonic said:

Deleted_User said:

Who thinks that tariffs will drop again once this is over?
Or are we in it for the longterm? 

EV ownership is becoming more common, and Octopus is becoming a large energy supplier. I can't really see how cross-subsidising EV ownership at the expense of regular customers can continue long term (it works when the subsidised users are in a tiny minority). In the short term Go and Go Faster rates may fall back close to where they were.

As more people make use of low demand/low price periods then it follows that they will become high demand/high price. Personally, I believe that we will see some levelling off of prices but from what I read no analysts are predicting massive reductions. Despite the government arguing that we have diverse supply, the problem is that the highest bidder gets the energy. A lot of the LPG that used to head Westwards is now going to Asia. 

This is what should be happening, we should be encouraged to utilise the excess electricity that is being produced during the night when demand is low, its more efficient to keep the turbines turning but we do not have great capacity to store this excess electric, so it's a perfect time to charge EVs and other high powered items. 

Octopus also generates power so they have control of the full cycle and careful modelling and algorithms can work out when there will be excess in the system. 
The key observation here they have retained the 5p off peak rate, and only increased the peak rate so its aligned to other Octopus tariffs, this is a sensible move to protect the Go and Go faster tariff. These new rates make it less attractive for non EV owners, I think it's here to stay but with some extra checks and balances moving forward.

It's worth mentioning that Economy 7 has been around for a long time with the same objective, but generally much higher off-peak prices. I switched from an E7 tariff to Go Faster for that very reason. The ideal scenario for Octopus is to have EV users on a tariff like Agile if they can be flexible in when they charge their vehicle. Agile is the canary for whether or not there really is any excess electricity in the system and I think it's given us a clear answer in recent months.

The past few months I agree, but generally overnight there is excess. Unusually long periods of low wind this year have kept many turbines stationary, that can quickly change and we are then back to a situation of having more electricity than can be consumed, not just here but across Europe where low winds have stalled Electricity production. 

Octopus Go is sold as an EV tariff so very surprised that Octopus have not pushed for proof of EV ownership, especially now they are in the EV market and selling a bundled package of car, charger and tariff. 

masonic

savers_united said:

masonic said:

savers_united said:

Dolor said:

masonic said:

Deleted_User said:

Who thinks that tariffs will drop again once this is over?
Or are we in it for the longterm? 

EV ownership is becoming more common, and Octopus is becoming a large energy supplier. I can't really see how cross-subsidising EV ownership at the expense of regular customers can continue long term (it works when the subsidised users are in a tiny minority). In the short term Go and Go Faster rates may fall back close to where they were.

As more people make use of low demand/low price periods then it follows that they will become high demand/high price. Personally, I believe that we will see some levelling off of prices but from what I read no analysts are predicting massive reductions. Despite the government arguing that we have diverse supply, the problem is that the highest bidder gets the energy. A lot of the LPG that used to head Westwards is now going to Asia. 

This is what should be happening, we should be encouraged to utilise the excess electricity that is being produced during the night when demand is low, its more efficient to keep the turbines turning but we do not have great capacity to store this excess electric, so it's a perfect time to charge EVs and other high powered items. 

Octopus also generates power so they have control of the full cycle and careful modelling and algorithms can work out when there will be excess in the system. 
The key observation here they have retained the 5p off peak rate, and only increased the peak rate so its aligned to other Octopus tariffs, this is a sensible move to protect the Go and Go faster tariff. These new rates make it less attractive for non EV owners, I think it's here to stay but with some extra checks and balances moving forward.

It's worth mentioning that Economy 7 has been around for a long time with the same objective, but generally much higher off-peak prices. I switched from an E7 tariff to Go Faster for that very reason. The ideal scenario for Octopus is to have EV users on a tariff like Agile if they can be flexible in when they charge their vehicle. Agile is the canary for whether or not there really is any excess electricity in the system and I think it's given us a clear answer in recent months.

The past few months I agree, but generally overnight there is excess. Unusually long periods of low wind this year have kept many turbines stationary, that can quickly change and we are then back to a situation of having more electricity than can be consumed, not just here but across Europe where low winds have stalled Electricity production. 

Octopus Go is sold as an EV tariff so very surprised that Octopus have not pushed for proof of EV ownership, especially now they are in the EV market and selling a bundled package of car, charger and tariff. 

It wasn't sold to me as an EV tariff, they even asked about storage heaters in the questionnaire when I signed up. Octopus is of course free to target it at whomever they like in the future, but I don't think it is reasonable to suggest any of us who signed up and were completely honest and up front about our reasons for doing so are abusing the tariffs.

Telegraph_Sam

I can see the logic in having a tariff like Go - in a sense high risk / high gain - for EV people who can shift a substantial proportion of their consumption into the wee small hours. But these people lose out in times of shortage and the benefits of off-peak consumption become relatively less. 
Go in conjunction with a tariff like Go Faster which caters for those like myself who can do a limited amount of load shifting in return for a reduced but very acceptable thank you benefit. That was the happy position up until the most recent price rise. This latter rather destroys my logic or will do so if things don't normalize by the time my current GF contract comes to an end.

BeerSavesMoney

I signed up to Go Faster a couple of months ago and whilst EV or Battery ownership etc was a requirement on the T&Cs, this is something I didn’t mention on the application they sent me. 

It asked something similar to what high use appliance I had and I just put Dishwasher, Washing Machine and Shower. This wasn’t questioned and I was put on the Go Faster tariff the next day. 

At the end of the day despite what the T&Cs stated at the time, I didn’t lie to them and they were happy enough for me to be placed on the tariff with the information I provided them with.

Telegraph_Sam

I can echo that almost word for word except that I failed to find and study the T's & C's first having been a previous Octopus customer. Again I am not sure how one interprets EV ownership with and without a home charger (I am not an EV person myself so am not up to speed with the hi-tec)

niktheguru

If octopus really wanted to cull non ev or battery customers all they would need to do is drop the start times at 8.30 to 11.30, and just offer the 3,4 and 5 hr duration off peak tariffs overnight. That will very quickly cull the non ev users who won't be able to loadshift in the night, and have little benefit from go faster......either that or remove go faster entirely and just stick to go.

masonic

niktheguru said:

If octopus really wanted to cull non ev or battery customers all they would need to do is drop the start times at 8.30 to 11.30, and just offer the 3,4 and 5 hr duration off peak tariffs overnight. That will very quickly cull the non ev users who won't be able to loadshift in the night, and have little benefit from go faster......either that or remove go faster entirely and just stick to go.

Not me, I'm using one of the early morning slots. I suspect the attraction in having various different timeslots is that they can distribute customers between them to ensure demand at any particular time isn't excessive. Having everyone on the same slot, or even spread over just the AM hours, may not be feasible.