Octopus energy, their cumulative meter total on your account doesn't match smart actual meter

Qyburn

Reed_Richards said:

If you are on a Time of Use tariff that uses half hourly meter readings (and Agile is one such) then your supplier will bill you according to the 30 minute meter readings.  It doesn't matter what the total meter reading is.    

He's on Tracker which is a sort of hybrid. Normally it's billed on each day's consumption figures. But if the total doesn't match the change in meter index over the billed period, they "adjust" the daily figures to compensate. Hence a monstrous over estimated manual reading has royally screwed up billing for that period and the next.

I'd suggest asking Octopus if they could delete the erroneous reading and re-bill for the period before and after.

Reed_Richards

Qyburn said:

Reed_Richards said:

If you are on a Time of Use tariff that uses half hourly meter readings (and Agile is one such) then your supplier will bill you according to the 30 minute meter readings.  It doesn't matter what the total meter reading is.    

He's on Tracker which is a sort of hybrid. Normally it's billed on each day's consumption figures. But if the total doesn't match the change in meter index over the billed period, they "adjust" the daily figures to compensate. Hence a monstrous over estimated manual reading has royally screwed up billing for that period and the next.

I'd suggest asking Octopus if they could delete the erroneous reading and re-bill for the period before and after.

I am not a client of Octopus and my impression is that some of their tariffs are unnecessarily complicated.  Unless your meter is faulty, how can the total of all the daily consumption figures fail to match the change in the meter index? 

victor2

Reed_Richards said:

Qyburn said:

Reed_Richards said:

If you are on a Time of Use tariff that uses half hourly meter readings (and Agile is one such) then your supplier will bill you according to the 30 minute meter readings.  It doesn't matter what the total meter reading is.    

He's on Tracker which is a sort of hybrid. Normally it's billed on each day's consumption figures. But if the total doesn't match the change in meter index over the billed period, they "adjust" the daily figures to compensate. Hence a monstrous over estimated manual reading has royally screwed up billing for that period and the next.

I'd suggest asking Octopus if they could delete the erroneous reading and re-bill for the period before and after.

I am not a client of Octopus and my impression is that some of their tariffs are unnecessarily complicated.  Unless your meter is faulty, how can the total of all the daily consumption figures fail to match the change in the meter index? 

It's only happened when the OP gives a reading from one register and the readings Octopus are getting comes from another.

mmmmikey

Reed_Richards said:

Qyburn said:

Reed_Richards said:

If you are on a Time of Use tariff that uses half hourly meter readings (and Agile is one such) then your supplier will bill you according to the 30 minute meter readings.  It doesn't matter what the total meter reading is.    

He's on Tracker which is a sort of hybrid. Normally it's billed on each day's consumption figures. But if the total doesn't match the change in meter index over the billed period, they "adjust" the daily figures to compensate. Hence a monstrous over estimated manual reading has royally screwed up billing for that period and the next.

I'd suggest asking Octopus if they could delete the erroneous reading and re-bill for the period before and after.

I am not a client of Octopus and my impression is that some of their tariffs are unnecessarily complicated.  Unless your meter is faulty, how can the total of all the daily consumption figures fail to match the change in the meter index? 

In answer to your question, the scenario that sometimes causes an issue is that there are problems with the transmission of the data and/or string of computers between the meter and the energy company that causes the occasional 30 minute data update to be lost. Reconciling the meter readings with the total of all the daily consumption figures allows Octopus to make sure every thing is working correctly and rectify it if not.

Most of the Octopus smart tariffs are only more complex than single rate tarriffs because they charge different amounts at different times of day. They are no more complicated than legacy time of use tariffs like Economy 7, Economy 10, THTC and the like which work in the same way and have been about for years. The only difference is that the Octopus tariffs use a universal meter for recording usage whereas the legacy time of use tariffs use dedicated meters and you need the appropriate meter to use them.

Even Agile, the most variable of Octopus's tariffs, isn't really any more complex than Economy 7 - it just has 48 different charge rates each day instead of 2. Sure, the meter has to handle more data but it's only doing the same thing more often so in that sense is no more complicated.

The problem the OP has described in this post - essentially giving the energy company the wrong reading - happens and is reported here from time to time with old style not smart Economy 7 meters. Sometimes the customer transposes the day and night readings, and sometimes the readings get muddled up when changing supplier.

Time of use tariffs, whether they're legacy time of use tariffs like Economy 7 or one of the smart time of use tariffs from Octopus (and an increasing number of other suppliers) may be more complex. But they have the huge advantage of offereing far more flexibility and it's not uncommon for members of this forum to report savings of hundreds (and sometimes more than a thousand) pounds a year in energy charges.

Reed_Richards

victor2 said:

Reed_Richards said:

Qyburn said:

Reed_Richards said:

If you are on a Time of Use tariff that uses half hourly meter readings (and Agile is one such) then your supplier will bill you according to the 30 minute meter readings.  It doesn't matter what the total meter reading is.    

He's on Tracker which is a sort of hybrid. Normally it's billed on each day's consumption figures. But if the total doesn't match the change in meter index over the billed period, they "adjust" the daily figures to compensate. Hence a monstrous over estimated manual reading has royally screwed up billing for that period and the next.

I'd suggest asking Octopus if they could delete the erroneous reading and re-bill for the period before and after.

I am not a client of Octopus and my impression is that some of their tariffs are unnecessarily complicated.  Unless your meter is faulty, how can the total of all the daily consumption figures fail to match the change in the meter index? 

It's only happened when the OP gives a reading from one register and the readings Octopus are getting comes from another.

So the fundamental error was giving a reading at all instead of trusting the smart meter to provide all the necessary information?

BarelySentientAI

Reed_Richards said:

victor2 said:

Reed_Richards said:

Qyburn said:

Reed_Richards said:

If you are on a Time of Use tariff that uses half hourly meter readings (and Agile is one such) then your supplier will bill you according to the 30 minute meter readings.  It doesn't matter what the total meter reading is.    

He's on Tracker which is a sort of hybrid. Normally it's billed on each day's consumption figures. But if the total doesn't match the change in meter index over the billed period, they "adjust" the daily figures to compensate. Hence a monstrous over estimated manual reading has royally screwed up billing for that period and the next.

I'd suggest asking Octopus if they could delete the erroneous reading and re-bill for the period before and after.

I am not a client of Octopus and my impression is that some of their tariffs are unnecessarily complicated.  Unless your meter is faulty, how can the total of all the daily consumption figures fail to match the change in the meter index? 

It's only happened when the OP gives a reading from one register and the readings Octopus are getting comes from another.

So the fundamental error was giving a reading at all instead of trusting the smart meter to provide all the necessary information?

No, it was giving the wrong reading, inadvertently of course.

If the OP had found the right register and given a reading of ~3400, there would have been no problem at all.

The lesson would be that if all the other readings on your bill are in the order of 3000, think twice before submitting an 8000 reading even if it seems to make sense in your head at first glance, and ask the advice here before it all gets confused.

EssexHebridean

I still can’t get my head around that very high unit rate though - did we ever come to a conclusion about how that fitted in to everything else?

Netexporter

I suspect the "high unit rate" was the standing charge.

Spoonie_Turtle

Netexporter said:

I suspect the "high unit rate" was the standing charge.

No from the screenshot on page 1 it definitely was a unit rate (400-odd kWh @ 50-something p/kWh).

Bizarre.

BarelySentientAI

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Netexporter said:

I suspect the "high unit rate" was the standing charge.

No from the screenshot on page 1 it definitely was a unit rate (400-odd kWh @ 50-something p/kWh).

Bizarre.

I think it's a back-calculation from the total cost.  A weird result of the conversion from the daily price on the more detailed section onto a summary page of a normal-format bill.  Along the lines of:

The sum of your daily charges is £241.  The difference between start and end reading is 427kWh.  That means that the price must have been 56p/kWh.