Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Spies

Apologies if the next sentence is a bit dense but... 

How do you derive the standing charge on electric will be so much higher than gas? 

MWT

Spies said:

Apologies if the next sentence is a bit dense but... 

How do you derive the standing charge on electric will be so much higher than gas? 

The Ofgem model has been published and the main change to the electricity standing charges is the adjustment to the 'Network Costs' element for the SoLR cost recovery.

QrizB

Spies said:

Apologies if the next sentence is a bit dense but... 
How do you derive the standing charge on electric will be so much higher than gas? 

Let's look at the north-west region (just because it's at the top of the table).

• The maximum that a supplier can charge a gas customer using zero kWh in a year is £94.62+VAT. This works out to be 27.2p/day.
• The maximum that a supplier can charge an electricity customer using zero kWh in a year is £146.84+VAT. This works out to be 42.2p/day.

Does that make sense?

There's a more detailed explanation at the link in my signature, if you want to click through.

masonic

Those max standing charges look horrific. I hope Octopus isn't tempted to hike them across the board to these levels (I don't know what the max sc are now). I've been eyeing up the Tracker for the spring/summer/autumn because of its low sc. Even if the cap rises it may represent good value during a period of low usage.

DPicard

Hi, 

I have been with Octopus for a year since I moved houses and kept the previous owners arrangement; 12M Fixed term for £85/month which seemed a lot at the beginning and been on credit all year but now in wintd I am about all right.

I have just received the new fixed term quotes and they seem totally over the roof; they offer 12M at 214£/month (same consumption) and then a cheaper 'loyal' fee for 190. Thats a 120% increase at least. 
Proposed kwh costs are: 8.81p for gas and 32.39p for electricity (Manchester). Please correct me if Im wrong but this is still more expensive than those values from the table above. 
I think i'm going flexible and take my chances (I can always shower cold) cos I think that somebody is having a laugh. That or maybe Octopus is also about to go down and they are trying to keep afloat.

Regards,

QrizB

DPicard said:

Proposed kwh costs are: 8.81p for gas and 32.39p for electricity (Manchester). Please correct me if Im wrong but this is still more expensive than those values from the table above.

Yes, Octopus's main fixed rates aren't particularly competitive at present. Flexible Octopus is currently cheaper and is likely to remain so for a few months, at least.

bristolleedsfan

masonic said:

Those max standing charges look horrific. I hope Octopus isn't tempted to hike them across the board to these levels (I don't know what the max sc are now). I've been eyeing up the Tracker for the spring/summer/autumn because of its low sc. Even if the cap rises it may represent good value during a period of low usage.

They can give 30 days notice to increase standing charge on tracker tariff.

masonic

bristolleedsfan said:

masonic said:

Those max standing charges look horrific. I hope Octopus isn't tempted to hike them across the board to these levels (I don't know what the max sc are now). I've been eyeing up the Tracker for the spring/summer/autumn because of its low sc. Even if the cap rises it may represent good value during a period of low usage.

They can give 30 days notice to increase standing charge on tracker tariff.

Yes, that is a risk, but options are very limited now (at least for me), and the next best option could be Flexible. I'm inclined to take a gamble on an unhedged tariff in the hope things won't be as bad as the fixed tariffs have costed in.

QrizB

If you've got a electricity account and smart meter with Octopus, you might be interested in the Big Dirty Turn Down trial they're running:

https://octopus.energy/blog/the-big-dirty-turn-down-free-electricity-trial/

Starts today.

Telegraph_Sam

First impressions: The devil will be in the detail, I can't see much of a downside but the upside could be limited also.
It looks as if this scheme is targeted at customers who currently do not "power shift" and therefore have more to gain from trying to do so. Conversely Go / Go Faster / Agile Innovative customers would have relatively little to gain if in fact they were economizing in peak periods anyway.
The system targets a particular consumption period and sets the customer a percentage target reduction for this period. The customer grits his teeth and puts a squeeze on his consumption in this period.  The reward is then a credit towards his consumption in this squeezed period. If the percentage reduction percentage is tough then by definition the "value" of the credit will be correspondingly limited. It looks as though the customer will not have the chance to take advantage of the free electricity offer if he only gets to know about this after the event.
Much will depend on the selection of the target period and the severity of the target reduction.
If I have misread the terms I look forward to being corrected.