Octopus Tracker

Alnat1

Tried to chase up my smart meter problems with Octopus today. Rang the number, recorded message - we are aware there are problems with your smart meter, our team are working on it. If you need to contact us regarding this please email smart.help@octopus.energy

So no further forward really with getting Tracker gas billed daily instead of the monthly average thing but at least a slightly different contact address which I have sent a message to.

rjmachin

Alnat1 said:

Tried to chase up my smart meter problems with Octopus today. Rang the number, recorded message - we are aware there are problems with your smart meter, our team are working on it. If you need to contact us regarding this please email smart.help@octopus.energy

So no further forward really with getting Tracker gas billed daily instead of the monthly average thing but at least a slightly different contact address which I have sent a message to.

Are you having the same problem as me (and it seems some others with the same smart meter as me)?

My meter has not sent readings since the 9th May, the Octopus are supposed to be looking into it, after 2 months it is still not working.

I am on the Octopus Go tariff, so am concerned they will boot me off it on to the standard tariff

[Deleted User]

Alnat1 said:

So no further forward really with getting Tracker gas billed daily instead of the monthly average thing but at least a slightly different contact address which I have sent a message to.

I have had SMETS2 meters now for over 3 years and I have been on Gas Tracker for about 2/3rds of that time. Tracker has never been billed using daily gas costs as Tracker Gas is both a smart and non-smart meter tariff. 

Alnat1

So are you saying even when they can tell my daily usage they will assume equal kWh each day and bill me accordingly (equal being that graph that gradually goes down over the month)

I was hoping I could treat myself to a long hot bath on a cheap day but it appears you're saying it doesn't work that way.

k_man

Assuming they get everything working, then you will get individual daily costs (@Donor has an ongoing issue).
However, these are then averaged to be shown in the summary, similar to what Donor post above.

This doesn't mean the bill is based on a standard average.
Just summarised look like it.

If they can't get daily readings, then they revert to typical usage.

This was discussed a while ago:

tomp2494 said:

Just looking at latest bill....it appears Octopus have billed me an average, rather than for what I've used on each day with the different rates. I have a working smart meter,so surely I should be being billed for each day rather than an average? 

The average daily unit rate used in the Your charges in detail section of the bill, should be your average worked out from your daily usage and the daily rate, based on the daily figures lower down the bill.

It isn't just a simple monthly average, and will be different for everyone.

I assume they do this to keep the summary section as a single block.

k_man said:

Alnat1 said:

Octopus seem to average out the kWh used throughout the billing period but also show that we gradually reduce the amount of gas used each day.

So it's no use me thinking Tracker gas is cheap today, I'll boil this ham joint on the hob for 90 minutes/put the boiler on for an extra 30 minutes and have a nice hot bath.

Looks like you are temporarily on the non-smart meter version.
As suggested previously, a DM via Twitter usually gets a support response quicker than email.

When the smart meter figures are being used, it does work as expected.

Spies said:

SJMALBA said:

From the Tracker FAQ:

Given that Tracker, on your online account, doesn't seem to actually work, is there any other way of seeing these forecasts?

Has anyone actually raised this issue with them?

Octopus are aware of this issue with the Tracker function on the website.

See also

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


How we calculate daily usage

Our smart meter rollout will start in the next few months and until then we'll use the meter readings you give us, and apportion usage to each day using the official Profile Coefficients for electricity, and Annual Load Profiles for gas.

We make projections with the official estimated consumption figures for each meter (known as EAC for electricity and AQ for gas), or in their absence, the estimates customers give us. The more meter readings you give us, the more accurate we can be.

[Deleted User]

I don't work for Octopus so I have no insider information but I suspect that Octopus needs to have one billing system for both smart and non-smart Tracker gas and electricity customers. If Octopus was minded to have a smart meter tariff for gas, I imagine that it could introduce Agile Gas. I have never seen this possibility mentioned in any of Octopus' social media outputs.

k_man

Does gas wholesale price vary during the day like electricity?

QrizB

k_man said:

Does gas wholesale price vary during the day like electricity?

No, it does not. And there's a single price for the entire weekend.

k_man

So no reason (yet) for an Agile Gas.

Is the gas less volatile (changing only daily, and only weekdays), because the the delivery network smooths out demand?

Alnat1

Gas is easily stored until it's needed.