Octopus Agile

Newbie_John

Another thing that was either in the email or I've discovered while going to octopus website was that they created a "green day" predictor:
https://octopus.energy/smart/greener-days/

a bit of copy of this website:
https://emoncms.org/ukgrid

Downsides of Octopus page are:
a) it's not going far ahead - today is Tuesday and it's still stuck on Mon-Fri
b) it's not showing details of when could be the cheaper hours - night/day just one random value 100 for Thursday as it will be a good day for Agile

mmmmikey

Spies said:

Edit: getting confused between Tracker and Agile topics, ignore my previous comment

Agile formula is remaining the same, just the SC is going up

Thanks for the edit, much appreciated, makes the thread much easier to follow

Netexporter

MeteredOut said:

Netexporter said:

(Version D)

2.3.1 Prices for the Agile Octopus tariff are calculated based on a formula related to wholesale costs, and are usually published between 16:00-22:00 (normally, but not always, nearer 16:00), for the following day, with a different price for every 30 minutes of every day.

2.3.2.1 For customers who signed up or renewed before 11 December 2023: Agile Octopus is a Variable Rate Tariff, and your daily standing charge and the unit rate pricing formula is variable and subject to change. We will give you reasonable notice of any changes.

2.3.2.2 For customers who signed up or renewed after 11 December 2023: Agile Octopus is a Variable Rate Tariff with a fixed term. This means whilst your unit rate varies daily throughout the day, your daily standing charge and the unit rate pricing formula are fixed for the duration of your tariff term.

2.3.3 Prices can rise as well as fall, though the unit rate is capped at the amount specified at the time of switching. We will give you reasonable notice of any changes to the cap.

2.3.4 The variable nature of Agile Octopus means any prediction of future costs will be inaccurate and historical data will not predict future performance. Agile Octopus is a smart import tariff that allows you to unlock the cheaper and greener benefits of using energy according to wholesale costs. Sometimes peaks may be higher, sometimes lower. You will always be able to switch to one of our fairly priced standard tariffs at any time.

2.3.5 If upon signing up or renewing, you are put on an older version of the tariff than the one valid on the day of your signup or renewal (whichever is later), we reserve the right to amend your agreement to the correct version of the tariff which was live at the time of your sign up or renewal (whichever is later). We will not be liable for any financial losses resulting from this issue.

No reference to any specific change of formula in there.

As I said in my earlier post.

Chrysalis

Netexporter said:

(Version D)

2.3.1 Prices for the Agile Octopus tariff are calculated based on a formula related to wholesale costs, and are usually published between 16:00-22:00 (normally, but not always, nearer 16:00), for the following day, with a different price for every 30 minutes of every day.

2.3.2.1 For customers who signed up or renewed before 11 December 2023: Agile Octopus is a Variable Rate Tariff, and your daily standing charge and the unit rate pricing formula is variable and subject to change. We will give you reasonable notice of any changes.

2.3.2.2 For customers who signed up or renewed after 11 December 2023: Agile Octopus is a Variable Rate Tariff with a fixed term. This means whilst your unit rate varies daily throughout the day, your daily standing charge and the unit rate pricing formula are fixed for the duration of your tariff term.

2.3.3 Prices can rise as well as fall, though the unit rate is capped at the amount specified at the time of switching. We will give you reasonable notice of any changes to the cap.

2.3.4 The variable nature of Agile Octopus means any prediction of future costs will be inaccurate and historical data will not predict future performance. Agile Octopus is a smart import tariff that allows you to unlock the cheaper and greener benefits of using energy according to wholesale costs. Sometimes peaks may be higher, sometimes lower. You will always be able to switch to one of our fairly priced standard tariffs at any time.

2.3.5 If upon signing up or renewing, you are put on an older version of the tariff than the one valid on the day of your signup or renewal (whichever is later), we reserve the right to amend your agreement to the correct version of the tariff which was live at the time of your sign up or renewal (whichever is later). We will not be liable for any financial losses resulting from this issue.

Thanks for pasting, but this is the important line.

2.3.2.1 For customers who signed up or renewed before 11 December 2023

and

For customers who signed up or renewed after 11 December 2023: Agile Octopus is a Variable Rate Tariff with a fixed term. This means whilst your unit rate varies daily throughout the day, your daily standing charge and the unit rate pricing formula are fixed for the duration of your tariff term.

Bendo

The December 2023 formula is the same as the earlier versions, just the raise standing charge.  People will be moved onto the December 2023 version so there won't be a change to the formula.

t0rt0ise

A bit worrying with these tariffs, Agile and Tracker, that Octopus presumably won't lower the SC even if the charge for the SVT reduces.

mmmmikey

t0rt0ise said:

A bit worrying with these tariffs, Agile and Tracker, that Octopus presumably won't lower the SC even if the charge for the SVT reduces.

An interesting point and one I hadn't considered. I would imagine that Octopus would have to lower the SC to keep the tariffs attractive and stop customers just siwtching out, but we're into uncharted territory so who knows?

Newbie_John

mmmmikey said:

t0rt0ise said:

A bit worrying with these tariffs, Agile and Tracker, that Octopus presumably won't lower the SC even if the charge for the SVT reduces.

An interesting point and one I hadn't considered. I would imagine that Octopus would have to lower the SC to keep the tariffs attractive and stop customers just siwtching out, but we're into uncharted territory so who knows?

Well, if for example SC reduces by half 15p-30p and that would make standard tariff attractive (while SC on Agile remains the same) then I would wonder what does one do on Agile. It's easy to save few pounds a day on Agile and I cannot imagine the few pence would make any difference.

One thing for sure is that with time Agile will be becoming less and less attractive, either due to Octopus trying to make more money out of it as more people join or simply by electricity prices going down - if right now I can save 17p per kWh (11p vs 28p) then in a year time if prices halve it would only be 8p saved. So if right now I can save few hundreds pounds a year it's all worthwhile, but if it drops a lot then I may not be bothered to check the rates when to run washing machine, worry if winter will get £1/kWh   

Spoonie_Turtle

Newbie_John said:

mmmmikey said:

t0rt0ise said:

A bit worrying with these tariffs, Agile and Tracker, that Octopus presumably won't lower the SC even if the charge for the SVT reduces.

An interesting point and one I hadn't considered. I would imagine that Octopus would have to lower the SC to keep the tariffs attractive and stop customers just siwtching out, but we're into uncharted territory so who knows?

Well, if for example SC reduces by half 15p-30p and that would make standard tariff attractive (while SC on Agile remains the same) then I would wonder what does one do on Agile. It's easy to save few pounds a day on Agile and I cannot imagine the few pence would make any difference.

One thing for sure is that with time Agile will be becoming less and less attractive, either due to Octopus trying to make more money out of it as more people join or simply by electricity prices going down - if right now I can save 17p per kWh (11p vs 28p) then in a year time if prices halve it would only be 8p saved. So if right now I can save few hundreds pounds a year it's all worthwhile, but if it drops a lot then I may not be bothered to check the rates when to run washing machine, worry if winter will get £1/kWh   

Depends - if cheap prices generally mean more plunge pricing with excess renewable energy in the grid, then getting paid to use energy is still an attractive aspect of the tariff.

Chrysalis

mmmmikey said:

t0rt0ise said:

A bit worrying with these tariffs, Agile and Tracker, that Octopus presumably won't lower the SC even if the charge for the SVT reduces.

An interesting point and one I hadn't considered. I would imagine that Octopus would have to lower the SC to keep the tariffs attractive and stop customers just siwtching out, but we're into uncharted territory so who knows?

If the SC were to go down on the SVR, the unit rate will go up to compensate, the burden would be a shift it wouldnt just vanish.

So tracker/agile would probably still be competitive, especially given the margin they have on unit rates, but of course if someone is a very light user, they might get tempted to switch to a lower SC SVR.