Octopus Tracker

Griffindog

I paid more than SVR through a lot of July, August and September last year but fortunately my caps are 40p/11p so it wasn’t too much due to low summer usage. It was a gamble that fortunately paid off.

SJMALBA

masonic said:

pfpf said:

masonic said:

MWT said:

masonic said:

Both Agile and Tracker have similar risks, yet one is freely available and the other is not.

Mostly driven by certain websites aggressively promoting the Tracker tariff as the best deal around.

If any of them do the same for Agile then I'd expect a similar reaction from Octopus...

Indeed. We shall see how many of them consider it the best deal around from July onwards, and especially during the autumn/winter.

out of interest, whats the driver "from July onwards" to push prices up on a tracker? is it the surge to buy stocks in advance for winter? i thought spot and long range prices were always very different?

The EPG only lasts until the end of June. As I understand it Tracker will not be subject to the Ofgem price cap, so for those who have joined recently the cap will increase from ~33p to 100p. I have no idea what will happen to wholesale prices, but there is the potential for Tracker to rise above the Ofgem cap for periods of time starting in July.

The cap for the currently available Tracker is already is 100p/kWh, not 33p/kWh.
If URs were to go above 100p/kWh, they would be reduced to the tarrif UR cap (100p/kWh), then have EPG applied, so they could currently pay as much as 66.57p/kWh.

https://octopus.energy/tracker-faqs/

masonic

SJMALBA said:

masonic said:

pfpf said:

masonic said:

MWT said:

masonic said:

Both Agile and Tracker have similar risks, yet one is freely available and the other is not.

Mostly driven by certain websites aggressively promoting the Tracker tariff as the best deal around.

If any of them do the same for Agile then I'd expect a similar reaction from Octopus...

Indeed. We shall see how many of them consider it the best deal around from July onwards, and especially during the autumn/winter.

out of interest, whats the driver "from July onwards" to push prices up on a tracker? is it the surge to buy stocks in advance for winter? i thought spot and long range prices were always very different?

The EPG only lasts until the end of June. As I understand it Tracker will not be subject to the Ofgem price cap, so for those who have joined recently the cap will increase from ~33p to 100p. I have no idea what will happen to wholesale prices, but there is the potential for Tracker to rise above the Ofgem cap for periods of time starting in July.

The cap for the currently available Tracker is already is 100p/kWh, not 33p/kWh.
If URs were to go above 100p/kWh, they would be reduced to the tarrif UR cap (100p/kWh), then have EPG applied, so they could currently pay as much as 66.57p/kWh.

https://octopus.energy/tracker-faqs/

Tracker is currently subject to the Energy Price Guarantee as it is now a flexible tariff, is that not the case? EPG is currently set at the equivalent of ~33p/kWh.

Edit: Ok, I see what you are getting at, prices are capped at 33p/kWh up to a maximum Tracker price of 66p/kWh, so you are quite right that the 33p pseudo-cap could be breached in the extreme and I was ignoring the possibility the Tracker price could spike above 66p/kWh. I think the point holds that it is going to look a lot less attractive from July vs today.

bristolleedsfan

Loads cheaper than this time last year - Yorkshire region tomorrow - E - 19.86pkWh

SJMALBA

masonic said:

SJMALBA said:

masonic said:

pfpf said:

SNIP
masonic said:

Indeed. We shall see how many of them consider it the best deal around from July onwards, and especially during the autumn/winter.

out of interest, whats the driver "from July onwards" to push prices up on a tracker? is it the surge to buy stocks in advance for winter? i thought spot and long range prices were always very different?

The EPG only lasts until the end of June. As I understand it Tracker will not be subject to the Ofgem price cap, so for those who have joined recently the cap will increase from ~33p to 100p. I have no idea what will happen to wholesale prices, but there is the potential for Tracker to rise above the Ofgem cap for periods of time starting in July.

The cap for the currently available Tracker is already is 100p/kWh, not 33p/kWh.
If URs were to go above 100p/kWh, they would be reduced to the tarrif UR cap (100p/kWh), then have EPG applied, so they could currently pay as much as 66.57p/kWh.

https://octopus.energy/tracker-faqs/

Tracker is currently subject to the Energy Price Guarantee as it is now a flexible tariff, is that not the case? EPG is currently set at the equivalent of ~33p/kWh.

Edit: Ok, I see what you are getting at, prices are capped at 33p/kWh up to a maximum Tracker price of 66p/kWh, so you are quite right that the 33p pseudo-cap could be breached in the extreme and I was ignoring the possibility the Tracker price could spike above 66p/kWh. I think the point holds that it is going to look a lot less attractive from July vs today.

All versions of Tracker have EPG applied, with the exception of Tracker v1 (whose UR caps are already below EPG).
There is no 33p/kWh cap as such, only the UR caps for each version of Tracker; If URs go above EPG, then EPG reduction is applied up to the maximum reduction/down to the EPG floor. With later versions, which have UR caps that are high enough to still be above EPG once maximum EPG reduction has been applied, they will pay above EPG, up to the max. 66.57p/kWh for the current Tracker November 2022 v1.

Who knows what the future may bring; hopefully, summer this year won't be as high as last year (when actual URs for electricity went as high as 80p/kWh), but given the mad world in which we are living, all bets are off.

Thankfully, Autumn, Winter and Spring (so far), have been relatively 'cheap' (I'm on Tracker v2, and EPG hasn't been required so far this year...)
(trying not to tempt fate! 😱).

bristolleedsfan

bristolleedsfan said:

Loads cheaper than this time last year - Yorkshire region tomorrow - E - 19.86pkWh

Yorkshire region Wednesday  - E - 17.06pkWh

Chrysalis

pfpf said:

masonic said:

MWT said:

masonic said:

Both Agile and Tracker have similar risks, yet one is freely available and the other is not.

Mostly driven by certain websites aggressively promoting the Tracker tariff as the best deal around.

If any of them do the same for Agile then I'd expect a similar reaction from Octopus...

Indeed. We shall see how many of them consider it the best deal around from July onwards, and especially during the autumn/winter.

out of interest, whats the driver "from July onwards" to push prices up on a tracker? is it the surge to buy stocks in advance for winter? i thought spot and long range prices were always very different?

Last summer we had high tracker prices, at the same time as Europe was filling its gas reserves, the trackers were actually cheaper this past winter.

SVR prices are predicted to drop, so yes the tables might turn.

Sun-Is-Fun

Can anyone explain the difference between Octopus Tracker and Agile Octopus?

masonic

Sun-Is-Fun said:

Can anyone explain the difference between Octopus Tracker and Agile Octopus?

In a nutshell, Tracker gives a single unit price that changes each day, while Agile gives a unit price that varies each half hour, with an additional peak period between 4-7pm where the unit price is increased relative to the rest of the day.

Doc_N

masonic said:

Sun-Is-Fun said:

Can anyone explain the difference between Octopus Tracker and Agile Octopus?

In a nutshell, Tracker gives a single unit price that changes each day, while Agile gives a unit price that varies each half hour, with an additional peak period between 4-7pm where the unit price is increased relative to the rest of the day.

But isn’t Agile electricity only?