Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

savers_united

A couple of things I guess as to why they now prefer EV users to those moving home appliance use.

Octopus now also lease EV's and install charge points, they are selling their EV tariff as part of the package, so they need to keep slots for their leases and maybe are now trying to sell the tariff as exclusive to EV owners, an incentive for owning an EV with easy to calculate fixed costs. 

Admin is far easier with less users, especially if the end result of shifting x Kwh per annum is still being achieved. 

Moving the the biggest peak users, charging 100 EV's at 5pm is more problematic for the grid than having 100 dishwashers on, with no incentive to charge an EV at off peak many will be charging all time of day, they are simply looking in my opinion to maximise their available slots and EV is the best way. 

[Deleted User]

Telegraph_Sam said:

Granted that the "average" EV owner is likely to have higher consumption than his non-EV counterpart, the question still remains: What is the rationale for "displacing" a dishwasher-kWh with an EV-kWh (excuse the short hand)?  The answer will be different depending on whether limits in off-peak supply have been reached. The presumption is that high offtake (per account) is somehow to be preferred to low offtake.  Other than for admin economics I query this.
I have investigated the domestic battery option (to combine with my solar panels) on various occasions and always concluded that for myself the technology is light years away from being financially viable using normal "investment" criteria.  Things may be different further up the generation chain.

Does there need to be any rationale? You have to remember that Agile; Go and Go Faster are development tariffs. A lot of users use Octopus’ API and smart home solutions to control EV charging; battery charging etc. Octopus has also spent the last two years refining HH billing which is essential for time of use tariffs. Eighteen months ago it had no way of receiving missing smart meter data.

Telegraph_Sam

Reinforces my point that one can't really know the thinking behind it without knowing the current supply  background - whether or not one or more timeslots has reached its supply limit. If this is not so then the case for "limiting" access to GF by differentiating  between customers is not convincing. On the other hand if say the 8.30 pm time slot is running at capacity then there is no excess capacity to fill and large [EV] accounts are no more to be preferred than medium sized. Other than for admin or perhaps marketing reasons.

niktheguru

At the end of the day though, octopus can offer whatever tariff they want to whoever they want. They can decide the boundaries. If the customer wants those cheaper tariffs they will have to comply with the rules, regardless of the rationale behind it.

masonic

Dolor said:

If someone ticks the box for Go/Go Faster and states that they have an EV when they don’t, and six months later the supplier asks for copy of the V5 and one is not produced, then arguably the consumer has breached the terms of the contract, and the supplier would have every right to remove them from the tariff - fixed or not. In this respect, it is no different to someone saying that they agree to a smart meter to get onto a certain tariff, and then when asked to book an appointment, they refuse.

Agree, if anyone has lied on the survey then Octopus could eject them, but nobody has admitted to doing that. Providing customers were honest in stating which high load appliances they had on the survey, then Octopus is the arbiter of whether they get onto the tariff and Octopus would would be liable for any decision they later determine they got wrong. Customers were (and are) entitled to apply for the tariff whether or not they believe they meet the criteria, and acceptance is at Octopus' discretion.

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

Granted that the "average" EV owner is likely to have higher consumption than his non-EV counterpart, the question still remains: What is the rationale for "displacing" a dishwasher-kWh with an EV-kWh (excuse the short hand)?  The answer will be different depending on whether limits in off-peak supply have been reached. The presumption is that high offtake (per account) is somehow to be preferred to low offtake. 

This has already been asked and answered several times

• Dishwashers do not reduce air pollution around our road network, or fossil fuel consumption
  
• Dishwashers are commonplace and do not require incentivisation to increase take-up
• Dishwashers do not store energy that could be tapped into as a resource in the future during periods of low generation
• Octopus cannot (seriously) promote its green credentials by sharing how many dishwasher users it has as customers
  

nadsat

Well it seems that the Tracker is actually the best deal for us - it's a cheaper projection than the two deals the site is offering us. Given they are capping Tracker at 30p for eIectricity I am quite pleased with this month spend on electricity as it should remain about this as the only thing that will now kick in is gas central heating unless we start using electric heaters in some rooms. You can see the wholesale price has been fluctuating wildly. 

nadsat

This is the gas - has been capped at 6p since mid-Sept. Also, the standing charges are about 10p less per day per fuel on Tracker I think. 

Telegraph_Sam

I used the term dishwasher in this conversation as shorthand for all high kW appliances other than EV's and ask that my comments be understood as such. Whether Octopus chooses to publicise the figures or not is a matter for their PR Dept.
The point remains thst whoever is excluded from the Go Faster scheme on the basis of EV non-ownership will then (depending on the options of course) take his consumption to non off peak periods. This may be regarded as an acceptable price to pay in return for favouring EV owners. It should be weighed in the balance. But not ignored.
I agree that at the end of the dsy Octopus is totally at liberty to offer whatever terms it sees fit to whatever new customers it chooses. Ours is not to reason why.,
I seem to recall that when I signed up for GF I was asked to name which high watt appliances I could load shift within the off peak time slots. The question was never put if included in these there was a EV.. EV's may have been mentioned only as an example.

MWT

Telegraph_Sam said:

The point remains thst whoever is excluded from the Go Faster scheme on the basis of EV non-ownership will then (depending on the options of course) take his consumption to non off peak periods. This may be regarded as an acceptable price to pay in return for favouring EV owners. It should be weighed in the balance. But not ignored.

You are talking as though the EV tariffs were the only option for off-peak incentives which of course they are not, E7 is still there and perfectly available on any smart meter, so no, lack of access to one group of tariffs does not mean a complete lack of other tariffs that also embody off-peak opportunities...