Octopus Go email - The Energy Price Guarantee and Octopus Go is this fair?

LundsLuddite

Anyone else on Octopus Go struggling to make sense of the The Energy Price Guarantee and Octopus Go explanation.

It’s unclear why consumers on this tariff will not benefit from the government unit price cap.

[Deleted User]

I haven't read it, but almost certainly because the weighted average of the day and night rates is below the cap level.  You don't benefit from a cap that you are already below.

So, to answer your title "is this fair"?  Yes, of course it is.

LundsLuddite

Update from Octopus website - if you’re on a fixed tariff the energy price cap will discount your tariff unit rates by up to 17.8p per unit of electricity. Expected this to be applied so Octopus Go unit price would equate to approx 34p per unit, apparently not.

savers_united

I have received the email and it seems fair, if we got a discount it would have been a bonus. My current average spread between peak / off peak is 17.5p per kwh and that is on the GO Faster 35/8.25p tariff. So well below the EPG cap for electric. 

[Deleted User]

Continue to read towards the bottom of your screenshot:

"This means that if you're currently on a fixed tariff that's cheaper than that, you won't get any further discount"

The 34p is for single rate tariffs.  A weighted average is used for multi rate tariffs.

Or you think that you should pay the same as single rate users in the day, then still get much cheaper at night?  That would be a very strange definition of "fair".

mrmajika

Deleted_User said:

I haven't read it, but almost certainly because the weighted average of the day and night rates is below the cap level. 

That's exactly the email's reasoning. I found it quite simple to understand.  

Here's a direct quote from their email explaining why they can't offer a lower day rate. 

The Energy Price Guarantee caps the average unit rate to 34p / kWh (this number varies by region) — and with a smart time–of–use tariff, that means the combined average of your off-peak and peak rates is capped at 34p.

So although your day rate is above 34p, the Government’s rules are very clear: we can’t apply the subsidy because your night rate is so low, and overall you’re already paying less than the Energy Price Guarantee rates for your electricity.

MWT

LundsLuddite said:

Anyone else on Octopus Go struggling to make sense of the The Energy Price Guarantee and Octopus Go explanation.

It’s unclear why consumers on this tariff will not benefit from the government unit price cap.

No struggle here, I've been saying all along that no change was to be expected as the weighted average was below the cap.

Take a look at the E7 tariffs for comparison the current Go/Intelligent tariff rates are still very reasonable and clearly below the cap.

Phlik

LundsLuddite said:

Anyone else on Octopus Go struggling to make sense of the The Energy Price Guarantee and Octopus Go explanation.

It’s unclear why consumers on this tariff will not benefit from the government unit price cap.

If you don't think it's fair there's an easy way to fix that, ask octopus to change your tariff to the standard variable rate, there you go, 34ppkWh 24 hours per day.

Keep_pedalling

It was exactly what I expected and it is entirely fare. We are already below the cap and it would be grossly unfair to everyone else for us to have it dropped further. I am already paying nothing for my electric use for the next 6 months I don’t need or deserve yet more subsidy.

pete-20-11

I looked at the official typical usage amounts for a two rate electric contract a while back. 

Calculated the cost using my rates and their typical usage pattern.

It came out cheaper than the £2500 cap. 

Thus I never expected octopus to reduce either of the rates. 

It’d be nice if they did, but wasn’t expecting it! 

mobilejo

Its totally 'fair' yes, for the reasons outlined above. 

Whether Go still works for you is a different question. For me (40p day/7.5p night), it didn't anymore because I don't actually have an EV and 99% of my usage is on day rates, so I switched to the SVT tariff where its ~34p all round. No complaints about Go though, it just happened to no longer be the cheapest option for me anymore. Actually, it makes my life easier as I no longer have to wait until 0.30 to put on the dishwasher.