New Octopus tariff for solar and battery users - Octopus Flux

Solarchaser

powerful_Rogue said:

Just seen Octopus have released this new tariff.

https://octopus.energy/smart/flux/

In theory you could import for 3 hours (which is what my batteries require to charge) at the flux rate.
Then export it all during the peak rate and make 16p/kwh
In reality with assumed 80% round trip efficiency, that would drop to 9p/kwh (0.8 x 36.6)
So could make ~ £1.80 / day, and so £640 /year.

It would totally negate what you generally buy batteries for though, and would be some nuance to that, obviously you will use some of that electric during peak in your own house for instance.

It's interesting though

cm4ever

It's definitely an interesting option, especially for the increased 'day export' rate of 22p vs current 15p (Outgoing Octopus), as well as the benefit of a cheaper potential night charging period and ONLY a 3hr day 'peak period' unit rate increase. On the face of it, it appears a much better option than changing to the current dual rate tariff (it would have to of been Eco7 in my case as we don't have an electric / hybrid car etc).

The tricky bit would be a combination of some form of pre-planning / system configuration and a slight change in lifestyle possibly needed to ensure minimal if any use of the grid within the peak rate time band...... as we're a low power use household, definitely tempted.

Officer_Dibble

I'm surprised how early in the afternoon they're allowing such a high export rate. On a sunny summer's day the battery will be 100% at 1600 and there'll be a fair bit of export straight from the panels left. I can see that they'll assume that most customers won't bother faffing round with forced export in those hours, but they're making it nice and easy if these are the finalised details.

Officer_Dibble

The regional tariffs are now available on the postcode search by the way. This is London...the export rate of 26p or more is definitely going to win us over, and will easily make up for the slightly higher (and significantly shorter time period of) night rates compared with E7. We'll be in the realms of free electricity over a year as a whole without any faff other than setting a max battery charge for the night depending on the forecast. 

powerful_Rogue

Officer_Dibble said:

The regional tariffs are now available on the postcode search by the way. This is London...the export rate of 26p or more is definitely going to win us over, and will easily make up for the slightly higher (and significantly shorter time period of) night rates compared with E7. We'll be in the realms of free electricity over a year as a whole without any faff other than setting a max battery charge for the night depending on the forecast. 

Sadly nothing showing for the South East yet.

Officer_Dibble

https://octopus.energy/smart/flux/ postcode checker..South East:

powerful_Rogue

Officer_Dibble said:

https://octopus.energy/smart/flux/ postcode checker..South East:

Oops, I was looking under the tariff section. Thank you.

Prefer yours though!

Officer_Dibble

I'm literally 100m from the boundary between London and SE - over the years we've usually had lower standing charges but higher unit price which has left us slightly worse off. Now the export price is higher too we're finally reaping the benefits of buying this house rather than the one down the road (apart from the South facing roof, which the other one doesn't have)

Mikeyboy01443

Go looks cheaper still if that is an option, for overnight charging. 
When it gets to March i will probably go back to standard tariff for import and agile for export, as that worked well for me most of last year

cm4ever

Just from reading some other forum posts/views and looking at the announcement on the Tesla Energy Plan: -

https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/support/tesla-energy-plan

I must admit that I'm taking the view that this is a welcome opening up of a new TOU tariff for many more people than them (Octopus) having a previously selective specific manufacturers TOU tariff that has been available previously.

In a way, this move helps to negate the frustration, by many, of not being able to access really cheap overnight battery charging rates available to "electric vehicle" owners.

Anyone with an acceptable "electric vehicle" that meets the Go type tariff criteria, as well as owning "battery storage", has had and still has the advantages of extremely low "battery storage" recharge rates.......

I do understand for TEP owners this will be seen as a reduction in return/income/ROI, but in the bigger picture for all, it's got to be a move in the right direction to help more people achieve savings and increase solar battery storage benefits to a wider audience.