Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

niktheguru

Telegraph_Sam said:

My previous query was simply to find out where to find the following day's Tracker prices after these have been published at 4 pm on any day as I was told was the case by the Octopus lady

Usually on the tariff page (input your postcode, dont ask for quote) https://octopus.energy/tariffs/
Also should update on your account page under the tracker tariff info.

niktheguru

Sam, If you're very interested in "working out" what your price is going to be for tomorrow you don't have to wait for octopus to update it.
I refer you, as always, to the very informative guy lipman website: https://www.guylipman.com/octopus/formulas.html

It tells you how to work it out, using the wholesale values from: https://www.nordpoolgroup.com/Market-data1/GB/Auction-prices/UK/Daily/?view=table

so, for example in the "South east" for tomorrow (8th april)

Whole sale price is £61.47 per MWh = 6.147p/KWh

Then (6.147 x 1.19) +7.51 = 14.82p/kwh (excl vat)
14.82*1.05 = 15.56p/Kwh

Alternatively you can wait for octopus to update it later....

Telegraph_Sam

Tks for the guidance. I regularly use the "All our Tariffs" web page before going to the demo page but from what I can deduce these both refer only to the current day's prices.
Being a lazy kind of individual I can't see myself getting involved in the higher mathematics converting Guy Lipman's data to tomorrow's retail prices. Rather it was a case of the Octopus lady saying that tomorrow's prices were published anyway at 4 pm that set me off on the wild goose chase. Worse things can happen than having to wait until tomorrow for tomorrow's prices ...
For what it is worth our North East prices are now 15.46 / 3.24 which is definitely a "peak" compared with previous weeks. If the prices were to continue at these levels for any length of time then it would be questionable if switching to Tracker was the right decision. Time will tell  ...

[Deleted User]

It looks like Agile and Tracker electricity prices will be slightly cheaper tomorrow (more sun and wind):

Telegraph_Sam

Is that table from Guy Lipman or from some other source?

Umiamz

Telegraph_Sam said:

Is that table from Guy Lipman or from some other source?

It's from nordpoolgroup.com, as it says at the top of the web browser app.

niktheguru

Telegraph_Sam said:

Is that table from Guy Lipman or from some other source?

I suggest if you don't want to be working out figures, then just stick to the octopus website when the actual figures are out, rather than looking at wholesale prices. To be fair, looking at the daily figures doesn't really change anything, if you don't have a smart meter. As the amount of energy apportioned to each day will only be known when you see your bill. It'll be far more useful in your case to look retrospectively at a months usage and see how you fared, then you can think if you want to continue or move to a more predictable fixed rate.

Umiamz

Regarding Tracker, there were a few months when I first got my smart meters fitted where the occasional day's readings were missing. Octopus then reverted to the 'averaging' method of calculating my usage. In all cases I emailed the smart meter team at Octopus and asked for the missing data to be retrieved and for the usage to be recalculated. I was quite impressed that the difference between the two was minimal and, in most cases, the bill was slightly higher when calculated with actual usage.

[Deleted User]

Telegraph_Sam said:

Is that table from Guy Lipman or from some other source?

As I have said previously, if you are going to worry about day-to-day price changes, then dynamic ToU tariffs may not be for you. I am on Go at the moment and the only thing on my mind is how much high energy use can I push into the ‘off peak’ period. I was much more engaged with day-to-day pricing when I was on Agile but changing back to Go was based on the trend that I could see over time not just a few high price days.

If it helps, a number of Agile customers who switched to Go over the Winter months are now switching back to Agile. They clearly believe that electricity prices have stabilised or are likely to fall. 

[Deleted User]

Future electricity costs. This is what National Grid ESO think. Have a look at page 22 costs.

https://www.nationalgrideso.com/document/189741/download