Is Scottish Power Leaking Customers' Energy Usage?

MeteredOut

We've just got an EV recently and are still using a 3-pin charger. We're getting solar & battery installed soon but don't yet have a smart meter (due to EDF's incompetence) or a proper EV charger.

As part of planning ahead, I've been putting the various EV tariffs into a spreadsheet to determine the best one to move to once the EDF issue is resolved and I can get a smart meter installed.

One of those tariffs is from Scottish Power. When I put my postcode into their quote system and select my house number, it says it cannot quote me for electricity, presumably because I don't have a smart meter. So, because I just want my local tariffs, I obviously just selected a neighbour.

This gave me the tariff details i was after, but I also got a very specific quote based on a very specific gas and electricity usage (it didn't ask me any usage questions in the quote process). Go back and chose another neighbour - the result is another different quote based on different gas and electricity usage. 

Is this looking up any central database and telling me that Mr & Mrs. Jones at number 37 have a hot tub (or a grow factory) with their 45,000 kWh usage, or is it calculating it based on other criteria (it gives some good level of variance between houses of the same type)?

FreeBear

MeteredOut said: Is this looking up any central database and telling me that Mr & Mrs. Jones at number 37 have a hot tub (or a grow factory) with their 45,000 kWh usage, or is it calculating it based on other criteria (it gives some good level of variance between houses of the same type)?

Yes, the data is being pulled from a central database. It doesn't break the usage down any further than annual consumption, so you can't tell if No.37 is cultivating their own herbs or brewing vats of (hooman) bean soup.

MattMattMattUK

FreeBear said:

MeteredOut said: Is this looking up any central database and telling me that Mr & Mrs. Jones at number 37 have a hot tub (or a grow factory) with their 45,000 kWh usage, or is it calculating it based on other criteria (it gives some good level of variance between houses of the same type)?

Yes, the data is being pulled from a central database. It doesn't break the usage down any further than annual consumption, so you can't tell if No.37 is cultivating their own herbs or brewing vats of (hooman) bean soup.

Or indeed using a high power UV pulse laser to communicate with their orbiting alien mothership. 

MeteredOut said:

As part of planning ahead, I've been putting the various EV tariffs into a spreadsheet to determine the best one to move to once the EDF issue is resolved and I can get a smart meter installed.

Octopus's Intelligent Octopus Go will almost certainly be your best option. Best overnight EV rate (which can also kick in at other times), with a six hour overnight window that can be used for anything, so you could use it to top up the battery overnight in winter when you do not generate much, so that you can shift the vast majority of your energy usage to that low rate of 7.5p, but with the advantage that rather than other tariffs that have much higher day rates the day rate is only 30p per kWh. 
https://octopus.energy/smart/intelligent-octopus-go/

Qyburn

Are both those neighbours supplier by Scottish Power?

Gerry1

Many, if not all, companies do this.  Seems ideal for scammers.

Something that dozy Ofcom should prohibit, at least without verification by the customer.  Oh, wait...

MeteredOut

MattMattMattUK said:

FreeBear said:

MeteredOut said: Is this looking up any central database and telling me that Mr & Mrs. Jones at number 37 have a hot tub (or a grow factory) with their 45,000 kWh usage, or is it calculating it based on other criteria (it gives some good level of variance between houses of the same type)?

Yes, the data is being pulled from a central database. It doesn't break the usage down any further than annual consumption, so you can't tell if No.37 is cultivating their own herbs or brewing vats of (hooman) bean soup.

Or indeed using a high power UV pulse laser to communicate with their orbiting alien mothership. 

MeteredOut said:

As part of planning ahead, I've been putting the various EV tariffs into a spreadsheet to determine the best one to move to once the EDF issue is resolved and I can get a smart meter installed.

Octopus's Intelligent Octopus Go will almost certainly be your best option. Best overnight EV rate (which can also kick in at other times), with a six hour overnight window that can be used for anything, so you could use it to top up the battery overnight in winter when you do not generate much, so that you can shift the vast majority of your energy usage to that low rate of 7.5p, but with the advantage that rather than other tariffs that have much higher day rates the day rate is only 30p per kWh. 
https://octopus.energy/smart/intelligent-octopus-go/

Yeah, that's one many recommend, but with the elec off-peak being 10% higher than my current off-peak standard rate, I'll need to do some calculations as to how much we can time-shift and how much of our load can move to the battery. Somewhat more difficult without the historic usage a smart meter would have given us (I do have a record of our meter readings going back a few years, so do have monthly usage figures).

We don't do a huge number of miles in the car (we had cards 9 and 11 years old, and traded in the older of the two) so that only gives us so much benefit. As of now, the OVO Charge Anytime (day rate is same as SVT, 10p EV charging) looks the best, but I've not yet added off-peak charging of the battery into the model and that could swing it towards IO.