Demand Flexibility Service 2023 (and beyond!)

Gooner_AJ

I tried to move to early this year and, at the time,  Octopus couldn't tell me what the rates for DD vs pay on receipt of bill were so I carried on paying by CC, that way get the Tesco points and up to 6 weeks interest free between paying Octopus and settling the CC bill.

JKenH

I am on an Octopus Flux tariff paying (round figures) 16p per kWh for 3 hours during the night, 37p from 4pm to 7pm and 26p the rest of the time. I don’t have a grid connected battery but use a portable power station (battery) charged overnight at 16p to cook tea most nights between 5-6pm. After allowing for cycling losses every 1 kWh I use cooking tea actually costs me around 20p so I save 17p/kWh. Given that we have another 4 saving sessions(at least) coming up before now and the end of December I would probably be better off just using mains power at 37p to cook tea. 

If I use 1kWh cooking on the battery per night for 10 nights  it costs me £2 plus 20p during the saving session (total £2.20) but if I use mains electricity  (and just use the PPS during the savings sessions)  it costs me £3.70  plus 20p (total £3.90) but qualify for a savings session payment of £2.25 or (£4 tonight). I am therefore spending £1.70 more on mains electricity but earning £2.25 (or £4) in the saving session. This presupposes there are 10 qualifying days or less between saving sessions. If there were (say) 15 I would lose out by using mains electricity (unless there was a live session paying £4 like tonight). Up until the end of the year there are another 4 savings sessions so I should be alright using mains rather than the battery but once we get into the new year they maybe further apart.

What I haven’t taken into account is the wear and tear on the battery. If the battery costs £400/kWh and has a 6000 cycle life the cost per cycle is 6.7p and if I factor that in then it certainly is better to use mains than my PPS battery to routinely cook my tea during a 12 session DFS campaign, only using the PPS on the evening of the saving session. 

Running the numbers with a tariff like IO (I am assuming 7.5p and 29p rates) then the saving is slightly more at 19.6p/kWh. Using 1 kWh each day I would spend 94p over 10 days plus 9.4p on the day. Using mains electricity I would spend £2.90 plus 9.4p on the day so would save £1.96 but that is still less than the £2.25 that can be earned from using I kWh mains power over the qualifying days. 

MultiFuelBurner

Gooner_AJ said:

I tried to move to early this year and, at the time,  Octopus couldn't tell me what the rates for DD vs pay on receipt of bill were so I carried on paying by CC, that way get the Tesco points and up to 6 weeks interest free between paying Octopus and settling the CC bill.

Even if you setup a variable whole bill monthly direct debit you can top-up your account by credit card just before your bill creation.

Alnat1

MultiFuelBurner said:

Gooner_AJ said:

I tried to move to early this year and, at the time,  Octopus couldn't tell me what the rates for DD vs pay on receipt of bill were so I carried on paying by CC, that way get the Tesco points and up to 6 weeks interest free between paying Octopus and settling the CC bill.

Even if you setup a variable whole bill monthly direct debit you can top-up your account by credit card just before your bill creation.

I'm think that the extra costs you pay by not using DD are around 7-9%. Is this more than you gain in Tesco points and interest?

peter3hg

Gooner_AJ said:

I tried to move to early this year and, at the time,  Octopus couldn't tell me what the rates for DD vs pay on receipt of bill were so I carried on paying by CC, that way get the Tesco points and up to 6 weeks interest free between paying Octopus and settling the CC bill.

I am on DD with Octopus, but reduced the DD down to £1 a month and pay off the bill by credit card as soon as they are created. That way I get the DD rates, cashback from the credit card and benefit from the interest free period on the credit card.

RG2015

_Hazel_ said:

Sky news are reporting the first live event for the DFS will take place tomorrow evening (Wednesday) from 5pm to 6.30pm.
Had a notification from Octopus offering £4 per unit saved. 

I have signed up with E.ON Next for today's event but they haven't said how much I could get. They said the following.

Reduce your electricity usage

Wednesday 29/11/2023

From 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm

20% target usage *Based on your usage over the past 8 days.

My average consumption over the last 8 days for this time period was 1.15kWh so I need to reduce this by 0.23kWh (20% of 1.15).

Two of my 8 days were 20% lower than 1.15kWh so it does look achievable.

If only it was on Thursday as we are out all day with no need to consume any energy between 5:00 and 6:30   

Spoonie_Turtle

Gooner_AJ said:

I tried to move to early this year and, at the time,  Octopus couldn't tell me what the rates for DD vs pay on receipt of bill were so I carried on paying by CC, that way get the Tesco points and up to 6 weeks interest free between paying Octopus and settling the CC bill.

Scroll down to the second table, 'other payment method' https://octopus.energy/blog/energy-price-cap-oct-2023/

QrizB

Alnat1 said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

Gooner_AJ said:

I tried to move to early this year and, at the time,  Octopus couldn't tell me what the rates for DD vs pay on receipt of bill were so I carried on paying by CC, that way get the Tesco points and up to 6 weeks interest free between paying Octopus and settling the CC bill.

Even if you setup a variable whole bill monthly direct debit you can top-up your account by credit card just before your bill creation.

I'm think that the extra costs you pay by not using DD are around 7-9%. Is this more than you gain in Tesco points and interest?

Clubcard points usually work out as a 0.5% return, or thereabouts. The best cashback credit cards rarely get above 1% (there's a MSE guide to the best buys).

It's almost certain that paying on receipt of bill by CC will be significantly more expensive than paying by DD.

@GoonerAJ you'll find Octopus's tariff details at https://octopus.energy/tariffs including for DD and other payment options.

MultiFuelBurner

QrizB said:

Alnat1 said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

Gooner_AJ said:

I tried to move to early this year and, at the time,  Octopus couldn't tell me what the rates for DD vs pay on receipt of bill were so I carried on paying by CC, that way get the Tesco points and up to 6 weeks interest free between paying Octopus and settling the CC bill.

Even if you setup a variable whole bill monthly direct debit you can top-up your account by credit card just before your bill creation.

I'm think that the extra costs you pay by not using DD are around 7-9%. Is this more than you gain in Tesco points and interest?

Clubcard points usually work out as a 0.5% return, or thereabouts. The best cashback credit cards rarely get above 1% (there's a MSE guide to the best buys).

It's almost certain that paying on receipt of bill by CC will be significantly more expensive than paying by DD.

@GoonerAJ you'll find Octopus's tariff details at https://octopus.energy/tariffs including for DD and other payment options.

We have tried to lead the horse to water and they can still sign up to variable DD and pay a day or so earlier by topping up their Octopus account with their Credit Card. 

So we have paved the way for circa 10% savings for this MSE'r I wonder if the penny has finally dropped?

pete-20-11

The other reason for running tests is to make sure that any new suppliers have everything in place to be part of the process. 

E.g. their software and calculations on how much they could save, their link to the national grid systems to specify their bids, etc.

plus I guess it helps refresh/train their staff on how to run an event ready for real if (when?!) it is needed.