Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Spies

Conversely why not reward people for using energy when it's green? 

Telegraph_Sam

Which is what Go Faster etc does anyway.

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

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.

The devil will indeed be in the detail, but this promotion looks ideal for someone like me, who has electric heating, is just coming out of the highest usage period, and who is well versed in load-shifting from a former period on the Agile tariff.

bristolleedsfan

masonic said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

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.

The devil will indeed be in the detail, but this promotion looks ideal for someone like me, who has electric heating, is just coming out of the highest usage period, and who is well versed in load-shifting from a former period on the Agile tariff.

I read it that Octopus wiill give participating customers 2 hour time slots within the most intensive periods for energy use. they pay  free electricity for what is used in that period if customer hit  reduced consumption targets vs the avg in that period for the previous four weeks.

The promotion appears to be aimed mostly at those who do not normally load shift plus those who do loadshift and normally as an example cook within a 2 hour time slot that is allocated to them and will gain if avoid cooking during that time slot

elsien

For those still waiting for bills, I now have my final Avro one in my octopus account.

No emails to let me know, just spotted it when I went onto the page to check leg again.
Now to check its accuracy.
There’s only the initial direct debit showing on the Avro bill and they took two. 

ETA - the further dds have been credited by Octopus to later bills.
4 and a bit months and we finally got there. 

masonic

bristolleedsfan said:

masonic said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

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.

The devil will indeed be in the detail, but this promotion looks ideal for someone like me, who has electric heating, is just coming out of the highest usage period, and who is well versed in load-shifting from a former period on the Agile tariff.

I read it that Octopus wiill give participating customers 2 hour time slots within the most intensive periods for energy use. they pay  free electricity for what is used in that period if customer hit  reduced consumption targets vs the avg in that period for the previous four weeks.

The promotion appears to be aimed mostly at those who do not normally load shift plus those who do loadshift and normally as an example cook within a 2 hour time slot that is allocated to them and will gain if avoid cooking during that time slot

I must admit I only skim-read, but I got the impression there was also a non-renewable aspect to the choice of time, but agree with your assessment. Maybe they'll alternate 4-6pm and 5-7pm on days when the wind isn't blowing

Telegraph_Sam

My prediction is that this will not be one of Octopus's most successful promotions. If it is tied up in strings which we try to interpret in forums like these then that is hardly a recipe for success. It is guesswork what exactly it is trying to achieve.  In comparison Power Hour's terms are relatively straight forward even if the timing is uncertain till 24 (?) hours in advance.  May be this latest one will be simpler in practice than in theory.  I might try it but gut feeling tells me that in my situation there will not be much to show for it / much lost if I give it a miss.

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

My prediction is that this will not be one of Octopus's most successful promotions. If it is tied up in strings which we try to interpret in forums like these then that is hardly a recipe for success. It is guesswork what exactly it is trying to achieve.  In comparison Power Hour's terms are relatively straight forward even if the timing is uncertain till 24 (?) hours in advance.  May be this latest one will be simpler in practice than in theory.  I might try it but gut feeling tells me that in my situation there will not be much to show for it / much lost if I give it a miss.

It's simpler than the recent gas promotion, but the payout is going to be considerably lower. There's nothing to lose by signing up, even if you don't change your behaviour at all, you might still get some free electricity.

savers_united

We are on Go and during the peak rate we use an average 10kwh per day, if during the Octopus 2 hour turn down window we say drop from current 2kwh to 1.6kwh (20% reduction target) that for us would be approx 26p rebate.
If we did this on 10 occasion we would get back £2.60, if I have read it right hardly worth doing. 

Telegraph_Sam

That would be my gut feeling. But if they decide that my most intense period is during my off-peak slots and rebate one of these the saving would be even lower.  Or would they select one of the lower use peak time slots? Same applies.