Octopus Tracker

matelodave

Surely the whole concept of the tracker tariifs is "swings and roundabouts". A few days or even weeks over the average should be evened out by hopefully a lot more days or weeks that are under.

It's going to be a fact of life that when you need to use mots (like in the winter when it's cold)t it's going to be around the same time as everyone else, so the prices will be higher for every one and conversely when it's warmer then prices will drop. 

I guess you should be looking at the bigger picture, over a much longer period of time, like a whole year rather than just a week or so in the winter.

masonic

Dolor said:

For those thinking about Octopus Agile, this is what wind does to electricity prices. However, betting the farm on wind energy is unlikely to give us an assured amount of energy going forward. It’s great when the wind blows but ….

Shame that plunge doesn't extend very far into daylight hours. The last one was more conveniently timed. Good to see the remaining Agile users are finally getting a break.

masonic

matelodave said:

Surely the whole concept of the tracker tariifs is "swings and roundabouts". A few days or even weeks over the average should be evened out by hopefully a lot more days or weeks that are under.

The real question is how is the Tracker intended to stack up against Octopus' fixed rate or variable tariffs over the long term. If the idea behind the Tracker is that customers will benefit from the savings from not having to hedge energy prices, and will therefore come in a little under those conventional tariffs, then that's all well and good. However, those standard tariffs are relatively expensive.

Looking at prices over 12 months would be a good idea, but not the last 12 months. Prices are up about 50% on this time last year - they fell to unusual lows as a result of the first lockdown - and the summer months were relatively more expensive. Whether the Tracker will represent good value this year remains to be seen, but certainly for the first 4 months of this year the answer is no.

matelodave

I've never been all that impressed with Octopus prices, however wonderful everyone thinks they are  - I got shoved over onto them when my prvious energy company went bust and my bills increased dramatically just for the six weeks I was with them (4p/kwh more than I was paying). 

Their cheapest current price would still cost me around £445pa more than I'm paying at the moment (I've just checked) and TBH life is a liitle bit to short to worry about whether I can afford to have the lights on, heat the place or cook my dinner at certain times of the day. I'd also have a real problem persuading my wife to do the washing, ironing,hoovering etc during the cheap periods.

bristolleedsfan

Dolor said:

For those thinking about Octopus Agile, this is what wind does to electricity prices. However, betting the farm on wind energy is unlikely to give us an assured amount of energy going forward. It’s great when the wind blows but …. 

To coin a phrase, what a difference 24 hours makes

National average pricing for

@octopus_energy

Agile Tariff: Wed 05-05-2021

Min: 14.3p (14:30)

Max: 34.6p (18:30)

Avg: 19.0p

Avg Excl Peak: 17.0p

Cheapest 4hrs: 14.7p

Peak (4pm-7pm): 32.2p

niktheguru

matelodave said:

I've never been all that impressed with Octopus prices, however wonderful everyone thinks they are  - I got shoved over onto them when my prvious energy company went bust and my bills increased dramatically just for the six weeks I was with them (4p/kwh more than I was paying). 

Their cheapest current price would still cost me around £445pa more than I'm paying at the moment (I've just checked) and TBH life is a liitle bit to short to worry about whether I can afford to have the lights on, heat the place or cook my dinner at certain times of the day. I'd also have a real problem persuading my wife to do the washing, ironing,hoovering etc during the cheap periods.

Have to agree with you, octopus' standard prices (fixed/variable) are nothing to shout home about, and their customer service is good but i wouldn't say it was as fabulously amazing as some people make out, but certainly better than most.

Its the innovative tariffs where octopus come into its own. Particularly the EV centred ones, such as go, go faster and agile. If you look at how uncompetitive other companies EV tariffs are in comparison, its a bit of a joke. look at edf for example. I'm only relatively new to octopus, but am impressed so far.

[Deleted User]

Tracker gas and electricity appearing to holding steady at a lower price than last week; however, if you are the type of person that buys £10s worth of shares and then worries when the price drops to £9.50 the following day, then there might be more suitable tariffs than Tracker. 

QrizB

[Deleted User] said:

For those thinking about Octopus Agile, this is what wind does to electricity prices.

And looking at Gridwatch, the wind forecast was pretty accurate. Wind was below 5GW (barring some very brief spurts) since the 9th of April but has been the biggest single contributor(between 10 and 15GW) since about midday yesterday including all day today.

PHoppers

Hi
I've been on Tracker v1 for Electricity since 4 April 2020. 
My unit rate has been as low as 9.90p per kwh incl vat (May 20) and as high as 19.17p per kwh incl vat (first 2 weeks in Jan 21). I've yet to work it out but I'd guess at the average rate being approx 13p per kwh.
The standing charge is 18.96 p per day.
I did have a benchmark price to compare which was the cheapest I could find on MSE energy club comparison tool on the day last April 2020, unfortunately I've lost it. 
I think electric rates are fairly high (15-16p??) and have been since Nov/Dec so possibly 13ppkwh over the last 13 months isn't too bad. TBH I've found that I've paid for my electric bill by just getting a few Family/friends/forum £50 referrals.

PHoppers

These are all my electric rates since April 2020. all are including VAT 
Standing Charge is 18.96 ppd including VAT

April 2020 10.12

May 2020 9.90

June 10.36

July 10.76

August 11.57

Sept 12.54

Oct 12.62

1 -15 nov 12.43

15-30 nov 12.70

1-15 dec 14.71

15-30 dec 13.62

1-15 jan'21  19.17

15-31 jan 15.04

1-15 feb  14.66

15-28 feb 13.19

1 -15 march 14.81

15-31 march 13.83

1-15 April 13.65

15-30 April 15.57