Octopus Time-of-Use Tariff Billing

[Deleted User]

Octopus bills its time-of-use tariff customers on the basis of 30 minute usage not meter index readings. Statements are produced without a meter reading or, occasionally, with just a single register start and finish reading on the statement. Even though the tariff is dual rate, the ESME and IHD just show a single peak rate. One might conclude that Octopus was just using a single R1 register.

Recently, Octopus released a new version of its App that shows smart meter readings. After a deal of head scratching, I now find that Octopus has been using two meter registers T01 and T02. This shows in the App as Peak and Offpeak. 

All would be well were it not for the fact that 98% of my import usage is offpeak (EV; solar and battery) but the TO1/TO2 readings show a 1300 v 432 split,  and what should be increasing offpeak units are showing as increasing peak units in the Octopus App. This anomaly doesn’t impact in anyway on billing.

The only rational explanation is that a tariff change last year has resulted in the transposition of the T01 and TO2 registers re peak and Offpeak - similar to a supplier adding day units to the night reading on an E7 tariff and vice versa.

Clearly, if I was to switch away from Octopus to a supplier that uses standard meter index readings, I would be wise to provide the new supplier with both the T01 and T02 readings without classifying them in terms of peak and Offpeak. I only mention this in case anyone is in the same category.

QrizB

I'm in a similar boat; my spart meter was using R01 for everything but some time in April Octopus reconfigured my smart meter to record peak use on R01 and off-peak on R02. I guess they've done the same to yours?

Bright also now shows two rates where it previously only showed the peak rate.

I must admit I haven't checked the meter readings against my bill yet ...

[Deleted User]

Not quite. T02 is now recording peak units and T01 is recording offpeak: confusing to say the least. I have suggested to Octopus that they need to show the actual meter readings for the billing period on statements. 

WBCPB

My Bright app on the "GO" tariff now shows the time of use timings as:23.30-03.30 (£0.075p) / 03.30-23.30(£0.3566p), but on the Octopus app and the welcome email shows :



which timing should i consider as correct does anyone know?

Regards

[Deleted User]

WBCPB said:

My Bright app on the "GO" tariff now shows the time of use timings as:23.30-03.30 (£0.075p) / 03.30-23.30(£0.3566p), but on the Octopus app and the welcome email shows :



which timing should i consider as correct does anyone know?

Regards

 Bright App retrieves tariff data from the meters. Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter a toss what us sent out by Octopus in your meters; however, it should match what is in the blue table. If it doesn’t then contact Octopus.

Why doesn’t it matter? For its Go tariff, Octopus recovers a daily file from your electricity meter. This comprises an index reading and a XML file. The latter contains 30 minute usage data and it is this data that is used by Kraken to produce your monthly statement. If you haven’t had a statement yet, you can look forward to 30 or so pages of daily usage data. This will provide 100% confirmation of your offpeak period. Clearly, if the Go start time has been incorrectly set, then Octopus has all the data necessary to amend your bill.

Alnat1

one is GMT, the other BST?

QrizB

Alnat1 said:

one is GMT, the other BST?

That was my thought, too. (And my Go ToU rates are also showing as 2330-0330 in Bright.)

WBCPB

Thanks for the replies, when can i expect a statement (bill)?, i went live on April 21st and gave a meter reading on 20th May as i thought i read somewhere in this thread that a meter read would produce a bill with Kraken software but nothing as of yet.

Regards

QrizB

WBCPB said:

Thanks for the replies, when can i expect a statement (bill)?, i went live on April 21st and gave a meter reading on 20th May as i thought i read somewhere in this thread that a meter read would produce a bill with Kraken software but nothing as of yet.

If your smart meter is working properly and Octopus are getting the data, the system should kick out  a bill every month without any action from you.

If Octopus aren't getting the data you won't get a bill, no matter how many meter readings you submit.

There's a website somewhere where you can check your smart meter data for completeness. Or you can skip all that and just drop an email to Octopus stating that you haven't had a bill yet and asking them to sort it out!

[Deleted User]

WBCPB said:

Thanks for the replies, when can i expect a statement (bill)?, i went live on April 21st and gave a meter reading on 20th May as i thought i read somewhere in this thread that a meter read would produce a bill with Kraken software but nothing as of yet.

Regards

Manual readings do not generate a bill if you have a smart meter. Moreover, as you are on a time-of-use tariff Octopus doesn’t use index readings for billing and most monthly statements do not show them. An import meter reading may appear from time-to-time but when it does it will likely be the total index reading not peak and Offpeak.

[Deleted User]

I must have upset Octopus when I told them that switching tariff registers was confusing as all my historical usage and meter readings have disappeared from the App. Then again, it could just be Kraken having a bad day or undergoing maintenance.