Octopus Agile

mmmmikey

Agile and Tracker are similar in the sense that they track wholesale energy market prices. They are both highly volatile so you might win or you might lose compared to SVR. It's very difficult to predict either way, it's a gamble.

Assuming you want to take that risk, you need to consider the fundamental difference between Agile and Tracker. That is: Agile prices vary through the day from hour to hour as well as from day to day, whereas Tracker only varies from one day to the next.

I'm happy to be challenged on this but I think it would be fair to say that the consensus on this forum is that you have to be very focused and able to actively shift a lot of your load for Agile to really work for you, and most people will be better off on Tracker which takes a lot less managing.

Scot_39

I've never looked into tracker vs agile very closely - just not an option for me - but someone kindly gave me a link and example from

https://energy-stats.uk

I just tried to do a dashboard - one for the c7 weeks since new cap (1st July to 17 Aug) and the EPG discount lifted (for Agile prices it also acted as a deadzone on high rate time slot prices - just as it applied to every unit for normal SVT)

As can be seen clearly looking at daily max prices for the year e.g. EM

https://energy-stats.uk/octopus-agile-east-midlands/

I am not convinced I am reading the output correctly - but on the face of it

The data sets include an average price - per 1/2 hr slot for agile.

for E Midlands 1/7/23 to 17/8/23

Agile daily averages 17.1p all day, 16p excluding 4-7pm and 31.9p 4-7pm.  (time not use weighted ?)

(6pm and 6:30pm slots highest 34p+)

Tracker (daily price) average 16.5p.

(The Ofgem cap in EM - 29.48p/kWh)

So anyone using a significant amount of usage at the peaks vs lows - certainly could be better off on tracker.

But it's too complicated to work out a general rule - as need to weight price with actual usage for each 1/2 slot - to get a true comparison - the 4-7pm has prices c27-c34p - the other 21 hours - prices from c11p to 22p (cheapest just after lunch time not overnight - as it was over last year - but not much in it)

But certainly closer than I was expecting.

And a clear indiciation - for many - tracker is the slightly more "just get on with your life" simple choice - without having to worry about what you switch on / when - especially when that price distribution can vary from day to day.

And please note those are all "high summer" so traditionally low cost days - for any comparisons with Ofgem SVT levels - as Octopus itself warns on it's FAQ for Tracker - prices will be higher in winter - "likely double" their exact wording iirc.

PennineAcute

You can come off Agile immediately, if things start to get too rough for your liking - with a 30-days' wait until you are able to go back another smart tariff.

Tracker, on the other hand, has a two-week wait before you can come off.  So there is a possibility of being stuck on high prices for two weeks before being able to come off.

I stand to be corrected if I am wrong.

Spoonie_Turtle

PennineAcute said:

You can come off Agile immediately, if things start to get too rough for your liking - with a 30-days' wait until you are able to go back another smart tariff.

Tracker, on the other hand, has a two-week wait before you can come off.  So there is a possibility of being stuck on high prices for two weeks before being able to come off.

I stand to be corrected if I am wrong.

Up to two-week wait.  So yes a possibility of being stuck at high prices, not a certainty.

Agile currently you would come off immediately.  If they start having mass exoduses then that can change.

Scot_39

Did the 2 week wait condition survive the newspaper stories of Octopus opening up of Tracker to existing and new customers - essentially taking it out of a restricted subscriber numbers offering was the upshot of some reports - in early July ?

Spoonie_Turtle

Scot_39 said:

Did the 2 week wait condition survive the newspaper stories of Octopus opening up of Tracker to existing and new customers - essentially taking it out of a restricted subscriber numbers offering was the upshot of some reports - in early July ?

As far as I remember it was pretty much then that it was introduced.  (Possibly to cover themselves in the event of a mass exodus?  Pure speculation there though.)

Mstty

It is probably just there to cover customer service workload the up to two week wait rather than a vehicle to keep customers on higher than SVT rates.

Complete tracker novice here so will see how it all pans out. 

Pat38493

I have been on Agile for a week and I am comparing it with Tracker using the Octopus Compare app.  I only have history since early July on my Octopus account so I don't have any winter data.

So far, both Agile and Tracker are running at about £40-£50 per month cheaper than Octopus Go for me (obviously won't be the case in Winter most likely).

Over the whole time so far, Tracker would have been slightly cheaper than Agile by a few pounds.  However, the load shifting we were doing previously was based on Go times and not optimised for Agile.  Today we are maxing out the sub 10p hours with car charging, washing, dishwasher.

On days when we are not using much more than base load, tracker is cheaper.  I suspect Agile will be cheaper once we do the correcct load shifting, but it might be that the difference is not big enough to justify the hassle.  We will stay on it for 2 or 3 months to see how it goes.

I'm even activating the portable hot tub - I want to experiment to see if we can keep it nearly at temperature using only low cost electricity on weekends - it has a rudimentary timer built in but I've never tried to use it in that way before.

rally8765

Scot_39 said:

Did the 2 week wait condition survive the newspaper stories of Octopus opening up of Tracker to existing and new customers - essentially taking it out of a restricted subscriber numbers offering was the upshot of some reports - in early July ?

I’ve applied for Tracker last week Wednesday and got moved on the 15/08, so approx. 4 working days from request.

Chrysalis

mmmmikey said:

Pat38493 said:

crumpet_man said:

I have switched to tracker.  Was always my goal but couldn't get on it immediately so went with Agile for the interim.

No solar, no batteries, no EV, GCH and nothing that I can load shift to night time.

Agile has saved me approx £50 per month compared to flexible but Tracker saves me another £5 to £10 with no effort on my part to load shift or plan

Were you already on Agile through last Winter and did you see similar savings in the winter months as well?

Last winter's prices were massively distorted by the EPG so I don't think you can do a useful comparison. It will certainly be interesting to see what this winter holds in store. Although I'm doing well out of Agile at the moment (with very little effort due to the amount of automation) I'm not wedded to it and I'm ready to switch back to E7 or whatever proves best if things change. My planning is on the basis that there is so much uncertainty in the energy market at the moment that it's impossible to predict what will happen this winter with any degree of confidence. So my approach is simply to choose what's best for me now (and nothing comes close to Agile), monitor it closely and switch if I need to.

The EPG only affected the cap on Agile.  So in all the instances when it was below the cap there was actually no EPG intervention which ended up being for most of the winter period.  It was summer and early autumn that was pegged at the cap for long periods (ironically before the EPG period started).