Octopus Tracker

bristolleedsfan

peter3hg said:

bristolleedsfan said:

peter3hg said:

As they've increased the standing charge in line with the price cap increase, they would be able to reduce the unit cost by approximately 2.3p a unit without impacting their overall margin. 

April 1st cap increase Octopus did not increase standing charge for current variable version of either Tracker or Agile, my region is currently 8p+ per day cheaper than flexible for electricity, gas is also a little cheaper.

Are you saying that notification has been sent that current versions of Tracker or Agile will have SC increase from July 1st.

I really meant for those they are allowing on from the 1st July.

Do you know what Standing Charge will apply from 1 July for customers going onto tracker tariff?

Are you saying you did not mean to say this being as even flexible tariff SC is and will remain after 1 July about 4% less than price cap?

"As they've increased the standing charge in line with the price cap increase"

peter3hg

bristolleedsfan said:

peter3hg said:

bristolleedsfan said:

peter3hg said:

As they've increased the standing charge in line with the price cap increase, they would be able to reduce the unit cost by approximately 2.3p a unit without impacting their overall margin. 

April 1st cap increase Octopus did not increase standing charge for current variable version of either Tracker or Agile, my region is currently 8p+ per day cheaper than flexible for electricity, gas is also a little cheaper.

Are you saying that notification has been sent that current versions of Tracker or Agile will have SC increase from July 1st.

I really meant for those they are allowing on from the 1st July.

Do you know what Standing Charge will apply from 1 July for customers going onto tracker tariff?

Are you saying you did not mean to say this being as even flexible tariff SC is and will remain after 1 July about 4% less than price cap?

"As they've increased the standing charge in line with the price cap increase"

I was on v3 which elapsed from the original year last week. The standing charges have increased proportional to the current April-June standing charges and my assumption is people starting on the 1st July would have a standing charge proportional to the July standing charges.

If you're being pedantic the standing charges still have a minor discount from the price cap standing charges and I should have said proportional to the price cap rather than in line.

bristolleedsfan

peter3hg said:

bristolleedsfan said:

peter3hg said:

bristolleedsfan said:

peter3hg said:

As they've increased the standing charge in line with the price cap increase, they would be able to reduce the unit cost by approximately 2.3p a unit without impacting their overall margin. 

April 1st cap increase Octopus did not increase standing charge for current variable version of either Tracker or Agile, my region is currently 8p+ per day cheaper than flexible for electricity, gas is also a little cheaper.

Are you saying that notification has been sent that current versions of Tracker or Agile will have SC increase from July 1st.

I really meant for those they are allowing on from the 1st July.

Do you know what Standing Charge will apply from 1 July for customers going onto tracker tariff?

Are you saying you did not mean to say this being as even flexible tariff SC is and will remain after 1 July about 4% less than price cap?

"As they've increased the standing charge in line with the price cap increase"

I was on v3 which elapsed from the original year last week. The standing charges have increased proportional to the current April-June standing charges and my assumption is people starting on the 1st July would have a standing charge proportional to the July standing charges.

If you're being pedantic the standing charges still have a minor discount from the price cap standing charges and I should have said proportional to the price cap rather than in line.

"April 1st cap increase Octopus did not increase standing charge for current variable version of either Tracker or Agile, my region is currently 8p+ per day cheaper than flexible for electricity, gas is also a little cheaper"

Doc_N

"European natural gas jumped as nervousness over a short-lived rebellion in Russia added to supply fears in an already volatile market." - Blomberg

This is going to make decisions on switching to Tracker a little more tricky!

Chrysalis

So I did some maths, to compare my tracker to agile costs, usage is variable so its only an estimate, but bear in mind this to what was my 33.02p capped agile (the cap is hit at peak hours currently) but assuming the new SC which would have started in July an extra circa £6.  In reality the cost would have been higher then that even due to higher peak costs.

So my last 2 electric bills were around £39 for a month.

My tracker estimated a daily cost today for £1.78, when I multiplied that by 30, It was notably higher, however this is the old Octopus problem raising its head where they over estimating my usage, when I based it on 6 units (last 7 days usage 5.4, 5,5, 5,2, 4.6, 6.5, 5.8, 5.4) and redid the maths, it became very similar to my last Agile bills +£6 for the higher SC.  Even 6 is a little high but I have had spells where my average goes up a bit, so been a little cautious.

mmmmikey

Doc_N said:

"European natural gas jumped as nervousness over a short-lived rebellion in Russia added to supply fears in an already volatile market." - Blomberg

This is going to make decisions on switching to Tracker a little more tricky!

...it shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone that the energy markets are volatile and the drivers for that volatility are still there.

I can't help thinking that a short, sharp increase in prices wouldn't be a bad thing if it made people stop and think and slowed down the Tracker bandwagon a bit. Tracker is a great tariff for people who understand how the energy market works and are ready to mitigate the risks of price hikes by shifting out. My fear is that "Trackermania" is starting to take hold and people are starting to switch on the basis of how cheap it's been over the last year or so without grasping the fact that past performance isn't a good indicator of what will happen in future - especially if that past performance is based on a very new "beta" tariff during a particularly volatile market period.

I'm confidentally predicting tears, tantrums and cries of "it's not fair" in the not too distant future...

double_dutchy

I just finished my year long Tracker (v3) contract. Over the year it saved me £555 approximately against Octopus' variable tariff/EPG (despite losing about £80 in the first 3 months).

I'm continuing with the new tracker but clearly the caps are now higher, there's no EPG and the variable rates (as of 1st July) will be cheaper.......

Chrysalis

peter3hg said:

If anything, all things being equal, they should be changing the formula to reduce the price relative to wholesale for electricity. There were changes in April 2022 and April 2023 to how network distribution and transmission charges were allocated with about £67.50 moved from the unit cost to the standing charge.
This is explained in this post: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80006666#Comment_80006666

As they've increased the standing charge in line with the price cap increase, they would be able to reduce the unit cost by approximately 2.3p a unit without impacting their overall margin. 
Obviously this is their business decision however.

Just read the post you linked to, its very informative thanks, I dont expect Octopus to reduce the unit rate as you said, they probably taking the extra margin instead.  Why would they? the tariff is proving popular and most are ignorant of what you posted.

What is perhaps more interesting is the Agile peak hour premium, I had previously said it was unknown why its there, but that was in error, the page I linked to does say its for transmission costs that are imposed at peak time by the grid (with a little margin on top), my question is, are these the costs you have mentioned that were moved to the SC? (which of course has now been increased on the agile tariff considerably from 21p to around 44p.).

Xbigman

Agile SC is 47.5p per day. And Between 4 and 7 tomorrow it reaches the EPG. It would have cost more next week.


Darren

Chrysalis

Xbigman said:

Agile SC is 47.5p per day. And Between 4 and 7 tomorrow it reaches the EPG. It would have cost more next week.


Darren

What I reported is for my region, it depends where you live.