Octopus Agile

JKenH

Last year I was on Agile and averaged around 16p/kWh import cost. In In January switched to Octopus Go and up until end of March was averaging just over 8.5p average import cost. My Go overnight rate has fallen to 5p and my import cost in April has averaged approximately 5.02p/kWh.

Last year having solar and being on Agile I found negative pricing days a little frustrating. I tried to binge on the negative import prices when available but to do that had to forego, typically, 45p per hour of export payments. As a consequence I would, as others have suggested, try and cram all my high load usage into a single hour or so but not everything runs at its maximum rating for a whole hour. 

Importing for importing’s sake just to maximise negative rates won’t generally be worthwhile if it is a sunny day and you have solar panels. If my panels output 3kW on a sunny day then even if I could sustain a constant load of 6kW for a whole hour by say putting a 2 kW heater in the garden to supplement a genuine 3 kW load in the house from, say, cooking, I would be forgoing 3 KWh of export which at current rates is 36p and would only earn 10p from the 2 kWh I was importing so the net loss to me would be 26p. In other words the 3kWh I used for cooking would cost me 8.3p/kWh rather than the -5p headline rate. Even if Agile rates go as low as -10p/kWh I would still lose money. 

Agile negative prices last year weren’t as attractive as they are now and my export rate at 15p/kWh was slightly higher but I realised trying to take advantage of of Agile rates actually cost me money, even if I liked the look of my monthly statements showing very low import prices.

In December I added more solar and a battery (details in signature) and took the view I would be far better off on Go (even though I don’t have an EV) than on Agile. On a sunny day I can typically be exporting at 6/7 kW so earning potentially 72 to 84p per hour at 12p/kWh. Even with Agile rates at -10p I would struggle to break even if I tried to take advantage of negative pricing. 

In the last 7 days I have imported 135kWh at 5.017p £6.77 and exported   205kWh at 12p earning £24.60 my net cost being -£17.83 on Go. What would I have earned if I had managed to import all my electricity while the sun was shining on negative Agile rates, say, at an average -5p? My import cost would have been -£6.75  but my export would have reduced to 70 hours at 12p or £8.40 so the net cost would have been -£15.15

I accept there is an assumption here that the negative pricing correlates with high solar generation and the figures will be different on a dull windy day but my point is that for anyone with a decent size solar array negative Agile pricing may not be sufficient to offset the benefits of a tariff like Go which offers guaranteed cheap rates without forgoing solar export earnings. 

NedS

@JKenH I found the same with solar and a battery.

Daytime negative rates are hard to exploit given current SEG rates, but overnight negative rates are good as one can force export the battery at 12p/kWh and be paid to refill it, plus load shift usage allowing more solar to be exported the following day.

T%hose without solar have no such issues and will be loving the all day negative rates, earning more than enough to offset at peak usage.

TroubledTarts

@JKenH it sounds like you have found the right tariff for your house.

If we had solar and batteries to complement our ASHP we would not be on Agile either so it makes sense.

greenbee

Agile is good for me today, as despite having a 12kW solar array, I'm currently generating a assive 2.6kW, but I agree that it's unusual, particularly once winter is over.

blindman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81958288#Comment_81958288

Hi

So where is this data from?

Thanks

TroubledTarts

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81958682#Comment_81958682

https://emoncms.org/ukgrid

RavingMad

Putting a heater in the garden!!?? Why?? Are people that desperate to claw back a few pence?

Netexporter

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81958880#Comment_81958880

They're doing a public service by lessening the need for constraint payments which would put everybody's bills up.

gt94sss2

Looking at some of the websites which monitor the National Grid, I'm surprised at how much electricity is still being generated by gas when Agile prices are negative.

QrizB

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81959042#Comment_81959042

Here's most of the reason:

https://wastedwind.energy

We've got plenty of wind power but we can't get it from the North to the South, so we're paying gas plants in the South to generate electricity that we're "throwing away" in the North.