Which electricity supplier and tariff

danco

Once some problems with my MPAN are sorted out, I plan to change supplier. There seem to be two options.

1. Green Energy.  Their current fixed tariff seems cheap. Their Tide tariff seems even better if they can install a SMETS2 meter quickly enough.

But are they a good firm to move to? I haven't seen how many customers they have, and whether they are likely to go bust as so many firms have. I notice that they are exempt from the price cap. Also they do not take part in the industry standard for switching (I think that may be called Safer Switching.)

2. Octopus. I am not quite sure what tariffs they have. Is the Octopus tracker their standard flexible tariff or do they have another flexible tariff? Tracker seems a touch expensive. I think they have a fixed tariff but it seems to be decidedly expensive. And then there is the Agile tariff, but I am not sure if my smart meter is suitable. Green Energy's Tide tariff seems to have some of the advantages of Agile but much less complicated.

What do others think? I have looked at the thread on Octopus Tracker, but am still not clear.

danco

I should add a bit more information. I live in a flat in a recently built block. Electricity only, no gas. Annual usage about 2800kWh.

Heating is provided communally in the block and so does not count towards normal electricity use, it is charged completely separately (there are problems with this charging, but that's a totally different issue).

QrizB

danco said:

1. Green Energy.  Their current fixed tariff seems cheap. Their Tide tariff seems even better if they can install a SMETS2 meter quickly enough.
But are they a good firm to move to? I haven't seen how many customers they have, and whether they are likely to go bust as so many firms have. I notice that they are exempt from the price cap. Also they do not take part in the industry standard for switching (I think that may be called Safer Switching.)

They get very few complaints here, but then they've got relatively few customers. They've been in business for 20 years and their latest accounts are much more informative than the usual small energy supplier.

I note that they've recently changed from a PLC to a private limited company, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Being exempt from the Ofgem cap they won't find themselves having to sell energy for less than cost price.

Sparkling is the best conventional fixed-price tariff on offer to the general market today, as far as I can tell. Tide is attractive if you can load shift effectively and avoid using any significant amount of electricity during the weekday evening peak period.

2. Octopus. I am not quite sure what tariffs they have. Is the Octopus tracker their standard flexible tariff or do they have another flexible tariff? Tracker seems a touch expensive. I think they have a fixed tariff but it seems to be decidedly expensive. And then there is the Agile tariff, but I am not sure if my smart meter is suitable. Green Energy's Tide tariff seems to have some of the advantages of Agile but much less complicated.

Octopus are a much bigger supplier than GEUK. They have a standard variable tariff - Flexible Octopus - that is pretty much the same as all the others, and a couple of fixed tariffs neither of which is especially attractive at present. Tracker and Agile are both slightly experimental tariffs that should work out cheaper than GEUK's Sparkling fix but Octopus do reserve the right to change things behind the scenes - so far they haven't, but you don't have a 100% guarantee that they won't.

danco

Thanks. That's helpful. I suspect that I can easily avoid using much during the peak period. Heating is irrelevant (because of the communal supply). I don't use a cooker during that period, use a kettle once. Certainly don't need to use washer or dryer then. Might want to watch TV or listen to music. Curently have my computer on but could turn it off. Have I forgotten anything important?

macman

Is the hot water supplied via the communal heating system? If not, that'll be your biggest usage by far.

QrizB

danco said:

Thanks. That's helpful. I suspect that I can easily avoid using much during the peak period. ... Have I forgotten anything important?

I think you say you have a smart meter now. Do you have a working in-home display? What sort of background load do you have in your house when you're not doing very much - when you're watching TV, say, or reading threads on the MSE forum?

100 watts for four hours is 0.4kWh, which (with High Tide at ~70p/kWh) would cost 28p/day.

nekr0mantik

octopus wont let you switch to them at the moment

im on EON Next and have a SMET1 meter so need to find out from GE if they will use that or do I need a new meter.

BUFF

even if they can't communicate you can do it the old-fashioned way ... https://www.greenenergyuk.com/meterreadings

danco

Hot water also comes from the communal system.

Unfortunately (I don't know why) we were never supplied with IHDs, and as I moved supplier from Eon to Bulb neither will now supply me with one.