Tomato Energy (Electric Only Supplier) - Too Good To Be True ?

Ildhund

SJMALBA said:

tlcgrantham said:

...  you can download the Bright ap which will show you usage data and cost. 

Only a laptop, I'm afraid.

You can just as easily access your data via Bright on a laptop. Just visit bright.glowmarkt.com in a browser:
  


These data are less than an hour old. If you need greater precision (i.e. three decimal places, like the tooltip shows), you have to be devious.

SJMALBA

Ildhund said:

SJMALBA said:

tlcgrantham said:

...  you can download the Bright ap which will show you usage data and cost. 

Only a laptop, I'm afraid.

You can just as easily access your data via Bright on a laptop. Just visit bright.glowmarkt.com in a browser:
  


These data are less than an hour old. If you need greater precision (i.e. three decimal places, like the tooltip shows), you have to be devious.

Up and running - thanks. 

bazray

I joined Tomato December 21st 2024, the setup of Mywatts seems to look okay and I have setup Bright as a double check, oddly the total monthly usage is slightly different on Mywatts its 197.164 kwh and on Bright its 199.112. It's not a huge variation but I can't understand why they would be different if the data is pulled from the same source, or is it just rounding errors or something?

Also I have been with them for 7 weeks now and I haven't had my first bill, is that common?

On the plus side by shifting washing and dishwasher etc... to cheap 5p rate I'm averaging around 15p a unit if they bill me correctly lol.

Thanks in advance

Ildhund

bazray said:

... the total monthly usage is slightly different on Mywatts its 197.164 kwh and on Bright its 199.112. 

How does MyWatts arrive at that figure? It's common for consumption over an extended period to be taken from meter readings, and in fact that's what suppliers are bound to do for billing (subtract the reading at the beginning of the billing period from the reading at its end to find the period's consumption). This may not always tally exactly with the sum of half-hourly usage data over the period, but rounding won't normally give rise to an error bigger than 0.001 kWh.

Can you see any differences between MyWatts' half-hourly figures and Bright's?  

tlcgrantham

bazray said:

I joined Tomato December 21st 2024, the setup of Mywatts seems to look okay and I have setup Bright as a double check, oddly the total monthly usage is slightly different on Mywatts its 197.164 kwh and on Bright its 199.112. It's not a huge variation but I can't understand why they would be different if the data is pulled from the same source, or is it just rounding errors or something?

Also I have been with them for 7 weeks now and I haven't had my first bill, is that common?

On the plus side by shifting washing and dishwasher etc... to cheap 5p rate I'm averaging around 15p a unit if they bill me correctly lol.

Thanks in advance

1. Comparing MyWatts with Bright will probably show some missing 30min slots on MyWatts.
2. That may be the cause of you not receiving a bill. They normally bill at the beginning of the month and most posters with a working Smets 2 smart meter have received a bill by the 4th February.

lohr500

Ildhund said:

 It's common for consumption over an extended period to be taken from meter readings, and in fact that's what suppliers are bound to do for billing (subtract the reading at the beginning of the billing period from the reading at its end to find the period's consumption). 

How does that work with TOU type tariffs like TE Lifestyle and many of the Octopus tariffs?

The reading or readings will only give the total consumption since the last reading.
If that total usage doesn't match the sum of the half hourly readings, then at what unit cost do the suppliers bill any difference at?

  

Doc_N

For anyone interested, the 2023 accounts can now be viewed:

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09735768/filing-history

masonic

Doc_N said:

For anyone interested, the 2023 accounts can now be viewed:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09735768/filing-history

That's a bit of a surprise for me. I was not expecting to see that level of turnover, a healthy profit and net assets. So no exemption from audit. A fair bit of restatement needed over issues with the prior unaudited accounts. I guess this must predate the launch of the ridiculously cheap tariffs, and customers were largely businesses.

TroubledTarts

I guess the enemy of any supplier is unpaid bills mainly from their commercial customers as residential are all paying full bill monthly DD.

And of course as mentioned in the report the thing that could sink them(and other suppliers) is a volatile energy market which we are currently in where they cannot secure energy at the right prices for their tariffs.

I don't know if this adds any more confidence or not, or makes it a less risky proposition or not. Probably not.

masonic

It adds a little confidence for me, as it demonstrates that they can make money from one section of their customer base, and hints that at least some of the cash they are burning on growing the consumer section could come from cross-subsidisation. Given that there is no clear link to external capital backing, this at least provides some insight into where some of that money could be coming from. Senapt's accounts may shed a bit more light, but these are still overdue. Other than an early ~£1m VC raise, which they appear to have subsequently bought out, it doesn't appear that they have been burning through investor capital. Ownership seems to be spread between the directors, directly and via their Solti Capital holdco, a couple of early partner companies, and a growing circle of employees/friends/family. But plenty has changed in the year just ended.

In the matter of them being in hot water with Elexon, which is a much bigger risk than their financial position IMHO, all of this is irrelevant. If they get expelled from BSC, then their financial position won't matter.