Octopus Agile

Scot_39

EssexHebridean said:

I have to confess that the recent tendency for the price for the 1900-1930 slot to still be above SVR is a bit annoying. I have absolutely no issue with waiting until 1901 to start cooking my tea, but waiting until 1931 is just running things too late. If that continues, then it may end up being the deal breaker for us as it might on too many days just push us over into the territory of Agile no longer being cheaper. 

Having just looked at the comparison, the week just gone, we'd have been cheaper overall back on the variable. (Which means had we stayed on the fix we were on, that would have been even less.) Over a longer period we are still up, but I'll be keeping a close eye on that just-past-peak slot. 

Dont swap to my E10 hours - I would have to wait until 8pm in winter - and 9pm in summer - for my cheap rate - or do it before 4/5 pm in afternoon slots.

Perhaps you yourself are a "victim" of the demand from others on agile doing like wise - delaying heavy power use activity to 7pm or beyond.

Ah - the joys of surge / dynamic pricing.

And yet we wonder why still smart meter sceptics out there.

Of course wind dropping another 10% like it did last Wed by 7pm cf 430pm at the start of the peak demand pricing - to about 10% of installed capacity - might not have helped the early evening pricing that day either.

Slinky

EssexHebridean said:

I have to confess that the recent tendency for the price for the 1900-1930 slot to still be above SVR is a bit annoying. I have absolutely no issue with waiting until 1901 to start cooking my tea, but waiting until 1931 is just running things too late. If that continues, then it may end up being the deal breaker for us as it might on too many days just push us over into the territory of Agile no longer being cheaper. 

Having just looked at the comparison, the week just gone, we'd have been cheaper overall back on the variable. (Which means had we stayed on the fix we were on, that would have been even less.) Over a longer period we are still up, but I'll be keeping a close eye on that just-past-peak slot. 

Have you thought about using a slow cooker to cook your tea before 4pm and dropping down to 'keep warm' setting til you want to eat?

Spoonie_Turtle

Scot_39 said:

EssexHebridean said:

I have to confess that the recent tendency for the price for the 1900-1930 slot to still be above SVR is a bit annoying. I have absolutely no issue with waiting until 1901 to start cooking my tea, but waiting until 1931 is just running things too late. If that continues, then it may end up being the deal breaker for us as it might on too many days just push us over into the territory of Agile no longer being cheaper. 

Having just looked at the comparison, the week just gone, we'd have been cheaper overall back on the variable. (Which means had we stayed on the fix we were on, that would have been even less.) Over a longer period we are still up, but I'll be keeping a close eye on that just-past-peak slot. 

Perhaps you yourself are a "victim" of the demand from others on agile doing like wise - delaying heavy power use activity to 7pm or beyond.

Ah - the joys of surge / dynamic pricing.

Is it really anything to do with that?  I thought it was just due the actual prices that result from the auction the day before.   Agile users, even several thousand of them, surely wouldn't have that much of an impact on the country's forecasted demand, to affect the wholesale prices the day before.

debitcardmayhem

Somewhat disconcerting its 2230 Mon Agile price 20.9 Wind currently 56%18% Gas Nukes 16.8%…. bad guesswork ?

teaselMay

I was looking through the fixed tariff options last night and whilst the current agile and gas tracker prices are pretty unpleasant there wasn't a more attractive tariff, there would be if I had an EV, solar or battery but I don't so bit limited.

Broke my £70 gas and electricity for the month target, this morning's bill is £71, but it dawned on me there's an extra day in this month compared to last, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

EssexHebridean

Slinky said:

EssexHebridean said:

I have to confess that the recent tendency for the price for the 1900-1930 slot to still be above SVR is a bit annoying. I have absolutely no issue with waiting until 1901 to start cooking my tea, but waiting until 1931 is just running things too late. If that continues, then it may end up being the deal breaker for us as it might on too many days just push us over into the territory of Agile no longer being cheaper. 

Having just looked at the comparison, the week just gone, we'd have been cheaper overall back on the variable. (Which means had we stayed on the fix we were on, that would have been even less.) Over a longer period we are still up, but I'll be keeping a close eye on that just-past-peak slot. 

Have you thought about using a slow cooker to cook your tea before 4pm and dropping down to 'keep warm' setting til you want to eat?

A decent enough idea and indeed something I do but realistically it would only work for 1 or at most 2 nights a week as otherwise life would get a bit repetitive! 

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Scot_39 said:

EssexHebridean said:

I have to confess that the recent tendency for the price for the 1900-1930 slot to still be above SVR is a bit annoying. I have absolutely no issue with waiting until 1901 to start cooking my tea, but waiting until 1931 is just running things too late. If that continues, then it may end up being the deal breaker for us as it might on too many days just push us over into the territory of Agile no longer being cheaper. 

Having just looked at the comparison, the week just gone, we'd have been cheaper overall back on the variable. (Which means had we stayed on the fix we were on, that would have been even less.) Over a longer period we are still up, but I'll be keeping a close eye on that just-past-peak slot. 

Perhaps you yourself are a "victim" of the demand from others on agile doing like wise - delaying heavy power use activity to 7pm or beyond.

Ah - the joys of surge / dynamic pricing.

Is it really anything to do with that?  I thought it was just due the actual prices that result from the auction the day before.   Agile users, even several thousand of them, surely wouldn't have that much of an impact on the country's forecasted demand, to affect the wholesale prices the day before.

Yes - Agile is still relatively speaking so niche I think we'd be over-egging its importance to suggest that the behaviour of those of us on the tariff could affect the wholesale prices to that extent. It would be quite impressive to think we could be that influential, but on the whole, I suspect not!  

Ultimately it's not a huge deal for a short period of time, and I'm too new to the tariff to know whether this might be a pattern familiar to this time of year (weather/temperature/daylight related perhaps?) in which case it will probably pass on by in due course anyway. 

Slinky

debitcardmayhem said:

Somewhat disconcerting its 2230 Mon Agile price 20.9 Wind currently 56%18% Gas Nukes 16.8%…. bad guesswork ?

I found myself charging between 20.30-21.00 last night for the first time ever, as being a tad cheaper than some of the other overnight slots.

Newbie_John

EssexHebridean said:

Ultimately it's not a huge deal for a short period of time, and I'm too new to the tariff to know whether this might be a pattern familiar to this time of year (weather/temperature/daylight related perhaps?) in which case it will probably pass on by in due course anyway. 

After 1 year I definitely see some patterns, the only odd thing this year is how high the highs go - and also how much they stretch outside typical 16-19 peak..

The only issue I found myself doing was to constantly compare to SVR but last year when it was going down 35p, 27p, 23p.. the Agile prices were already lower so the difference was big. Now, the SVR is slowly going up so Agile prices balance much closer to it - making the impression it's not saving as much. 

Chrysalis

wrf12345 said:

Cosy tariff actually looks better in many ways, as long as you can stay out of the doubled up peak period, even if you don't have a heat pump or electric boiler, but you are supposed to have one or the other to enrol but I think some have bluffed their way on to it.

Yeah of course. Intelligence GO, Cosy etc. are all alternatives to look at which have the benefit of assured rates, but sadly they not (officially) open tariffs, so for the masses on Octopus its typically a choice of standard E7 or Agile for TOU.  TE lifestyle feels like that tariff we have all been waiting for, but Octopus were not motivated to have a decent assured rate TOU tariff open to everyone.  I am hoping what TE have done pushes Octopus to making their own version even if its a couple pence higher across the board for their higher margins.  However Octopus are really into EV, heat pumps etc. and something makes me think they not going to release a open to all tariff that beats their specialist tariffs.

Newbie_John

This is the thing, profit margin on electricity itself isn't that big. But when you get a cut of the EV, heat pump it's a different story..