Energy news in general

MattMattMattUK

MultiFuelBurner said:

Octopus in profit for the first time since 2015

https://www.ft.com/content/fc3afafd-07c0-41b2-a6c1-a17b84f3f986

£203 million profit on £12.6 billion of turnover, a net pre-tax profit of 1.6%, still, I am sure someone will be along shortly to tell us that we are all being ripped off by energy suppliers making "massive" profits. 

MultiFuelBurner

MattMattMattUK said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

Octopus in profit for the first time since 2015

https://www.ft.com/content/fc3afafd-07c0-41b2-a6c1-a17b84f3f986

£203 million profit on £12.6 billion of turnover, a net pre-tax profit of 1.6%, still, I am sure someone will be along shortly to tell us that we are all being ripped off by energy suppliers making "massive" profits. 

And even more for the everyday persons thinking 7.7million customers so profit was £26.36 per customer.

bristolleedsfan

OVO and Vaillant partner to slash heat pump running costs

The partnership offers a competitive rate of 15p per kWh, potentially saving households an average of £495 per year

https://www.energylivenews.com/2024/02/01/ovo-and-vaillant-partner-to-slash-heat-pump-running-costs/

bristolleedsfan

https://fleetworld.co.uk/british-gas-slashes-ev-charging-costs-with-new-4-95p-kwh-offer/

British Gas is offering EV drivers the chance to slash charging costs to just 4.95p/kWh overnight under its Hive SmartCharge service.

New customers of the Hive chargers are also able to receive a full year of charging for free with FreeCharge. The promotion offers 12 months of free home charging to new customers who buy one of its Hive EV chargers. With the FreeCharge offer, customers will benefit from up to 8,000 miles of free EV charging. The offer is available to new and existing British Gas electricity customers who have a smart meter and purchase one of Hive’s EV Chargers.

littleteapot

As always these tariffs help the rich - those who can afford a shiny new EV or to replace their boiler with a heat pump. (Admittedly the goverment grants can make the latter affordable to all but the poorest people *if* they live in a suitable property). Last time I checked, heat pump outdoor units had to be a minimum distance of 3m from neighbouring bedroom windows, and most leasehold agreements prohibited their installation on the external walls of flats.

Unfortunately fitting a heat pump to our two bed terraced house isn't economically viable as we'd have the vast upheaval of lifting all the floors to lay pipes and install a wet heating system, which simply isn't possible with two adults and two little children. I had considered Air-to-air for at least the two most used rooms but given our timescales to move this didn't cost-in given the sheer luck of being one of the few who won on the "EDF energy Eastern region E7 3 year fix" lottery in September 2023, which will keep our storage heaters running cheaply until we move, hopefully to a 3-bed semi which already has a wet heating system and a suitable external wall.

As for an EV, would love one but no chance of us affording one which will carry 2 adults + 2 children + pushchair and related paraphernalia without. I'm not bleating that we are poor - we personally know many people who are raising a family on far lower incomes than us, and a few who are doing the same on much higher incomes than us. Only the highest earning one has been able to afford an EV.

Around here, most of the EVs are seen only in the middle of the daytime, being driven around by pensioners. Morning or early evening rush hours, they mostly disappear to be replaced with 5-20 year old petrol/diesel cars, highlighting the generational disparity of wealth distribution.

BellaBlondykeTheThird

bristolleedsfan said:

https://fleetworld.co.uk/british-gas-slashes-ev-charging-costs-with-new-4-95p-kwh-offer/

British Gas is offering EV drivers the chance to slash charging costs to just 4.95p/kWh overnight under its Hive SmartCharge service.

New customers of the Hive chargers are also able to receive a full year of charging for free with FreeCharge. The promotion offers 12 months of free home charging to new customers who buy one of its Hive EV chargers. With the FreeCharge offer, customers will benefit from up to 8,000 miles of free EV charging. The offer is available to new and existing British Gas electricity customers who have a smart meter and purchase one of Hive’s EV Chargers.

This appears to be the return of real competition to the energy market.

I suspect BG have lost more than a few customers to Octopus and the others and their move from the old to new billing system probably means they will lose more.

This seems an amazing rate can customers use household load during the same time for under 5p kWh?

MeteredOut

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

bristolleedsfan said:

https://fleetworld.co.uk/british-gas-slashes-ev-charging-costs-with-new-4-95p-kwh-offer/

British Gas is offering EV drivers the chance to slash charging costs to just 4.95p/kWh overnight under its Hive SmartCharge service.

New customers of the Hive chargers are also able to receive a full year of charging for free with FreeCharge. The promotion offers 12 months of free home charging to new customers who buy one of its Hive EV chargers. With the FreeCharge offer, customers will benefit from up to 8,000 miles of free EV charging. The offer is available to new and existing British Gas electricity customers who have a smart meter and purchase one of Hive’s EV Chargers.

This appears to be the return of real competition to the energy market.

I suspect BG have lost more than a few customers to Octopus and the others and their move from the old to new billing system probably means they will lose more.

This seems an amazing rate can customers use household load during the same time for under 5p kWh?

Check the T&Cs - limited number of users (5000), capped usage policy (2000kWh) and time restricted (1 year) for free charging, have to buy their charger, have to be plugged in/charging (not clear which) for 6 hours, otherwise the 4p discount is halved to 2p. 

The requirement to purchase a Hive charger (£939 or £1200 if you want BG to install it) would put me off immediately; Hive have discontinued services in the past and I'd not be surprised that you end up with a dumb (or, even disabled) charger a few years down the line. You're paying a premium for a charger to get "free" electricity. In reality, you're just paying for that "free" electricity up front.

As you say, its great there are other companies starting to think about more innovative tariffs, and any competition to Octopus in this space can only be a good thing, but I don't see this as something that will sway people back from Octopus.

michaels

MeteredOut said:

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

bristolleedsfan said:

https://fleetworld.co.uk/british-gas-slashes-ev-charging-costs-with-new-4-95p-kwh-offer/

British Gas is offering EV drivers the chance to slash charging costs to just 4.95p/kWh overnight under its Hive SmartCharge service.

New customers of the Hive chargers are also able to receive a full year of charging for free with FreeCharge. The promotion offers 12 months of free home charging to new customers who buy one of its Hive EV chargers. With the FreeCharge offer, customers will benefit from up to 8,000 miles of free EV charging. The offer is available to new and existing British Gas electricity customers who have a smart meter and purchase one of Hive’s EV Chargers.

This appears to be the return of real competition to the energy market.

I suspect BG have lost more than a few customers to Octopus and the others and their move from the old to new billing system probably means they will lose more.

This seems an amazing rate can customers use household load during the same time for under 5p kWh?

Check the T&Cs - limited number of users (5000), capped usage policy (2000kWh) and time restricted (1 year) for free charging, have to buy their charger, have to be plugged in/charging (not clear which) for 6 hours, otherwise the 4p discount is halved to 2p. 

The requirement to purchase a Hive charger (£939 or £1200 + £500 or £460 if you want BG to install it) would put me off immediately; Hive have discontinued services in the past and I'd not be surprised that you end up with a dumb (or, even disabled) charger a few years down the line. You're paying a premium for a charger to get "free" electricity. In reality, you're just paying for that "free" electricity up front.

As you say, its great there are other companies starting to think about more innovative tariffs, and any competition to Octopus in this space can only be a good thing, but I don't see this as something that will sway people back from Octopus.

Think you could buy a charger for 495 and get it fitted by a sparkie (not sure if you could swap out an existing charger yourself?)  However the quoted rate only applies to electricity through the charger (which is monitored and discounted by a 4p rebate), other off peak is at the BG EV tariff rate, currently 8.95p.

BellaBlondykeTheThird

MeteredOut said:

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

bristolleedsfan said:

https://fleetworld.co.uk/british-gas-slashes-ev-charging-costs-with-new-4-95p-kwh-offer/

British Gas is offering EV drivers the chance to slash charging costs to just 4.95p/kWh overnight under its Hive SmartCharge service.

New customers of the Hive chargers are also able to receive a full year of charging for free with FreeCharge. The promotion offers 12 months of free home charging to new customers who buy one of its Hive EV chargers. With the FreeCharge offer, customers will benefit from up to 8,000 miles of free EV charging. The offer is available to new and existing British Gas electricity customers who have a smart meter and purchase one of Hive’s EV Chargers.

This appears to be the return of real competition to the energy market.

I suspect BG have lost more than a few customers to Octopus and the others and their move from the old to new billing system probably means they will lose more.

This seems an amazing rate can customers use household load during the same time for under 5p kWh?

Check the T&Cs - limited number of users (5000), capped usage policy (2000kWh) and time restricted (1 year) for free charging, have to buy their charger, have to be plugged in/charging (not clear which) for 6 hours, otherwise the 4p discount is halved to 2p. 

The requirement to purchase a Hive charger (£939 or £1200 + £500 or £460 if you want BG to install it) would put me off immediately; Hive have discontinued services in the past and I'd not be surprised that you end up with a dumb (or, even disabled) charger a few years down the line. You're paying a premium for a charger to get "free" electricity. In reality, you're just paying for that "free" electricity up front.

As you say, its great there are other companies starting to think about more innovative tariffs, and any competition to Octopus in this space can only be a good thing, but I don't see this as something that will sway people back from Octopus.

Oh no the minions can checkout the T&C's and report back lol....oh they have

MeteredOut

michaels said:

MeteredOut said:

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

bristolleedsfan said:

https://fleetworld.co.uk/british-gas-slashes-ev-charging-costs-with-new-4-95p-kwh-offer/

British Gas is offering EV drivers the chance to slash charging costs to just 4.95p/kWh overnight under its Hive SmartCharge service.

New customers of the Hive chargers are also able to receive a full year of charging for free with FreeCharge. The promotion offers 12 months of free home charging to new customers who buy one of its Hive EV chargers. With the FreeCharge offer, customers will benefit from up to 8,000 miles of free EV charging. The offer is available to new and existing British Gas electricity customers who have a smart meter and purchase one of Hive’s EV Chargers.

This appears to be the return of real competition to the energy market.

I suspect BG have lost more than a few customers to Octopus and the others and their move from the old to new billing system probably means they will lose more.

This seems an amazing rate can customers use household load during the same time for under 5p kWh?

Check the T&Cs - limited number of users (5000), capped usage policy (2000kWh) and time restricted (1 year) for free charging, have to buy their charger, have to be plugged in/charging (not clear which) for 6 hours, otherwise the 4p discount is halved to 2p. 

The requirement to purchase a Hive charger (£939 or £1200 + £500 or £460 if you want BG to install it) would put me off immediately; Hive have discontinued services in the past and I'd not be surprised that you end up with a dumb (or, even disabled) charger a few years down the line. You're paying a premium for a charger to get "free" electricity. In reality, you're just paying for that "free" electricity up front.

As you say, its great there are other companies starting to think about more innovative tariffs, and any competition to Octopus in this space can only be a good thing, but I don't see this as something that will sway people back from Octopus.

Think you could buy a charger for 495 and get it fitted by a sparkie (not sure if you could swap out an existing charger yourself?)  However the quoted rate only applies to electricity through the charger (which is monitored and discounted by a 4p rebate), other off peak is at the BG EV tariff rate, currently 8.95p.

Yes, the T&Cs state indicate you have to buy (or have recently bought) one of the two Hive charges

"You install a Hive-enabled Alfen Eve Single S-Line or EO Mini Pro 3 that has been ordered from the Hive website or one of Hive’s retail partners, and activate the FreeCharge mode within the Hive app, on or after Thursday 19 th October 2023"

So, either £939 or £1200 if BG install it, or less if get your own sparky to install it.

https://assets.ctfassets.net/mijf9lz5yt3u/2zZOHCvwDe0GiumUoUgWBq/fba25a48b0b419b8173065d5dbd31720/Hive_FreeCharge_Terms___Conditions.pdf