Octopus Virtual Power Plant

Wellnessy

As my Powerwall 2 failed, Tesla finally replaced it with a Powerwall 3.

This led me to opt for being part of Octopus's Virtual Power Plant.

So far I am not convinced of the benefits. I fear that my battery is being drained and recharged in ways that do not offer me as much as when I had fixed Octopus rates for import and export depending on time day.

Has anyone perservered with Octopus Virtual Power Palnt and found it is a good deal?

I have solar as well, generating a maximum of 6kWh, and a Zappi car charger. I mostly charge my car from solar.

I have tried raising my concerns with Octopus via email. Not impressed with their replies to date and one of them took several days.

Netexporter

I'm sure you can make more if you manage the system yourself but some people just want to plug-and-play. Horses for courses.

Have you been through a summer period with the PW3? That may alter the sums quite significantly.

NedS

Intelligent Octopus Flux is a net metering tariff, which means import and export are priced the same. If you are a net exporter (you generate more than you consume) then the rates are very good. If you are consuming more than you generate, then you can probably do better elsewhere. So it's really a summer tariff, depending on your generation and usage. I plan to switch onto it at the end of March / beginning of April as that is the point I will generate more than I consume, depending on the weather.

If you know your generation and usage figures, I'd highly recommend Tim and Kat's solar tariff optimiser which will show you the best Octopus tariffs for you, month by month:

https://timandkatsgreenwalk.co.uk/

Screwdriva

This is the 3rd instance I've heard of Tesla upgrading a failed PW2 with a PW3 under warranty. Nice to see their customer service in action elsewhere!

Nearly all the 25+ PW3s I've helped with are on Intelligent Flux (the VPP) - it does not void the warranty and works really well. That said, I'd suggest keeping the minimum charge level at 20%.

NigeWick

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6657087/octopus-virtual-power-plant

i am on the Octopus Go thingy. I fill the battery (and charge the car) between 23:30 and 05:30 at 7p per kWh then use the battery all day and export all the solar at 12p per kWh.

Wellnessy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81901060#Comment_81901060

Thanks for your response. You might be interested to hear what the guy who replaced the Powerwall said. There have been a spate of PW2s needing to be replaced due to a bought-in component failing. The installer thinks those like me who have units that failed early are lucky because we got PW3s as a replacement. He expects later failures will be given refurbished PW2s.

The delay in getting my replacement led me to look at customer ratings of Tesla. They are not great for cars or batteries. Which leaves me wondering why Telsa shareholders voted to give Elon a $1tn pay package. Yes, it's based on performance, but how many people will buy a second Tesla car? And when battery owners need to replace in 10 years time, I think ther will be a lot more competition offering what Tesla provides now.

Screwdriva

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81906210#Comment_81906210

I wouldn't put too much faith in what any installer predicts re: Tesla and warranty replacements. In my experience, they have been the gold standard for after sales support in the UK, which should say alot about the competition.

JKenH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81901046#Comment_81901046

I was just wondering if you had considered non intelligent Octopus Flux for the summer. The export rate is around 10p during the day rising to 29p from 4 to 7pm. I am currently on Go so get paid a bit more, 12p rather than 10p during the day to export and I can charge my battery up at 8.5p on Go compared to charging from solar (in summer) for around 10p. After charging losses there is not a lot in it. I know the IOF export rate is around double during the day but you lose control of your battery. With a battery I could export around 33kWh in the peak period so most days I wouldn’t lose out much.

My real question is whether Octopus act in the best interests of the customer or do what’s best for them? For instance, have you ever ended up wanting to export more between 4 and 7pm than Octopus did?

NedS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81906919#Comment_81906919

Octopus will act in their best interests, not yours - that is what they are paying you for. However, given what they are paying, it is also in my best financial interests too compared to all the other available tariffs, as adjudged by all the models I've run. Your individual circumstances may be different.

I only have a 13.5kW battery, and Octopus operate a 20% reserve policy, meaning I only have 10.8kW of exportable battery capacity. I can manually reduce the reserve to force more export, and sometimes reduced down to 10% in the last 15-20mins. The limiting factor is more likely to be your inverter size and any restrictions on export rate, with those being high enough to export the available battery in the available 3 hour peak rate window. In my case, Octopus can export my battery in 2 hours if there's no sun, but on sunny evenings where there's still significant generation, I can be exporting for 2.5h or the whole 3 hours.

Personally I've never had an issue with Octopus not exporting the available capacity, but if you had a large battery capacity with small inverter or export limit, then you may not be able to export the full amount in 3h, especially if there's also significant solar contribution too.

Last summer I was exporting 30kWh net on a sunny day, with maybe half of that at peak rate, so for me that high day time export rate is equally as valuable as the very high peak rate. My average price for export was ~26p/kWh over the summer on IOF (this will be higher on cloudy days as a higher percentage of export occurs at peak rate, and lower on sunny days where more is exported at the lower day rate)

You mention losing control of your battery. It's a net metering tariff, so import and export are the same price. It does not matter if you are importing from the grid, running on battery or exporting - it's all the same. The only thing that matters is how much electricity you generate, how much you use and how much you can export. The less you use and hence the more you export, the more you earn. Controlling your battery isn't really going to change that (unless it's very sunny and you are restricted by a small inverter or export limitation).

I suggest you try Tim and Kat's solar tariff optimiser and see what works out best for you (watch their YouTube videos too):

https://timandkatsgreenwalk.co.uk/

Regular Flux is not as good financially for me - your numbers may generate a different outcome

I'm about £370 better off on IOF in the 6 summer months than any other Octopus tariff. Based on that, I'm more than happy to allow Octopus control of my battery for 6 months. The only thing I need to do it try to use at little electricity as possible, especially at peak rate.

Last year I achieved an average export rate of 26p during summer (and rates are actually higher this year, but may drop 1st April?), and paid 14.8p/kWh in winter on Cosy meaning that for every kWh I export in summer (at 26p) I can buy back 1.75kWh in winter at 14.8p/kWh. That kind of leverage between summer and winter makes it unbeatable.

Wellnessy

Thanks for the replies to date. I have raised my concerns about lack of transparancy about import and export prices as a formal complaint with Octopus. There are Ofgen requirements about clear pricing.

I understand that dymanic pricing makes this more difficult, but somehow Octopus crunch the number to provide a bill so why can't I see data that helps me to understand what I am paying for imports and exports during particular periods of time?

This may be difficult to do in real time, but at least let me see what happened yeterday or two days ago to help me assess.

Another issue I have noticed from examining the data that Octopus provide me is standing charges for imports and exports. For exports on March 3nd, the standing charge per half hour is either 5p or 10p per half hour. See attachment. And for imports on March 3rd, there is a standing charge of 1p per half hour.

Why these standing charges?

OctoExportMar3.jpg

debitcardmayhem

There aren't any standing charges for export.