New solar panels. Octopus flux or agile?

Polly05

Sorry, total newbie at this and just noticed there are two options to switch to on octopus.
Can anyone explain the differences in layman's terms for me? 
I can see the prices and standing charge etc for flux but not agile... 

CSI_Yorkshire

Isn't agile the tariff that has different prices every 30 minutes?

QrizB

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Isn't agile the tariff that has different prices every 30 minutes?

Yes, that's the one. A different price every 30 minutes, every day.

Polly05 said:

Sorry, total newbie at this and just noticed there are two options to switch to on octopus.
Can anyone explain the differences in layman's terms for me? 
I can see the prices and standing charge etc for flux but not agile... 

My favourite reference is energy-stats.uk which has a page for each of the Agile regions, for both Incoming and Outgoing. Here is an example page:

https://energy-stats.uk/octopus-agile-southern-england/

Polly05

Thanks for that. Had a quick look but will do more research tonight. Is there a standing charge for the agile? Can't see it anywhere... Would that just be the same as for flux? 

QrizB

For what it's worth, most of the "Green & Ethical" forum regulars are finding Flux to be much more profitable than Agile at present. Exceptions are rare, but would be eg. if you're a high electricity user with a small solar array, such that you're likely to still be importing more electricity than you generate even during the summer months.

There's a big thread about Flux on the G&E forum and that forum is where you'll find most of the dedicated solar PV folk.

QrizB

Polly05 said:

Thanks for that. Had a quick look but will do more research tonight. Is there a standing charge for the agile? Can't see it anywhere... Would that just be the same as for flux? 

If you go to https://octopus.energy/tariffs/ and ignore the big purple "get a quote" button but instead enter your postcode, you'll get a list of current Octopus tariffs for your region including details of standing charges.

[Deleted User]

Octopus Flux is a solar and battery tariff that comprises 3 time periods. Each time period has an import and export price. These are my settings:

There are two Agile tariffs: import and outgoing. What you get in the way of a return depends on such things as how much energy is coming from renewables. The amount you pay for import and how much you get paid for export varies for each 30 minute period. Prices for the following day are released at about 4pm each day. You can also elect for a fixed export tariff of 15p/kWh if you are on one of Octopus’ standard import tariffs.

All that said, Octopus will not sign you up for any export (SEG) tariff unless you have a smart meter with an export MPAN. For Octopus to get an export MPAN it will want details of your MCS Certificate and sight of the confirmation from your DNO that it has signed off on your installation. This confirmation will normally include details of any site export limit. For example, I have a site export limit of 11kVA.

Alnat1

Recently the Fixed Outgoing at 15p has been better than the Agile Outgoing so I'd suggest your choice is between

Flux which is 1 tariff with prices for both incoming and outgoing

Agile for incoming supply with Fixed at 15p for the solar excess

mmmmikey

Although there are some restrictions on how often you can do it, you are reasonably free to switch between Octopus tarriffs so it might be easiest just to go with what instinctively seems best and see how that works out over the summer months when usage is low. You can always change later on. The main thing to do is to initiate the swicth to Octopus and get the export set up if you haven't already done so. This can be very quick - I have just switched to Octopus Outgoing Fixed which took 8 days from start to finish, including tracking down paperwork I didn't have. But if it's a new system that can take considerably longer.