Octopus Intelligent Go 6 hour changes being rolled out.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995257#Comment_81995257

The bit that determines what counts is the part that is the result of smart charging.

If there is a dispatch requiring 3.6kWh in a 30 min period and during the time the car charges it pulls nothing from the grid then none of that 30 mins counts against your 6 hours.

If there is any draw from the grid during that smart charging period then it all counts against your 6 hours.

_Sam_

@MWT thank you, and apologies if I’m being thick 🙂

My question is in what way does it “all count” - or in other words, what do we mean by ‘all’ in this context.

If during the scheduled off-peak time my car charges for the entire 30min of a period, and of these for 20min it charges entirely from solar, and for the remaining 10min it charges from the grid - does the Octopus

1. bill me for the amount consumed during the 10min and tick off 10min out of my 6hrs off-peak price allowance (so I have 5hrs and 50min remaining to charge at the off-peak rate), or
2. bill me for the amount consumed during the 10min and tick off 30min out of my 6hrs off-peak price allowance (so I have 5hrs and 30min remaining to charge at the off-peak rate)

QrizB

If during the scheduled off-peak time my car charges for the entire 30min of a period

If your car charges for the full period, the full period counts and you'll have spent 30 minutes of your allowance.

and of these for 20min it charges entirely from solar, and for the remaining 10min it charges from the grid

I don't believe that's relevant to the way Octopus accounts for these things.

_Sam_

Thank you - from what the Octopus says the fact that the car charges from solar does appear relevant to their calculation of the 6hrs allowance:

If you’re charging on a blazing sunny afternoon and importing absolutely nothing from the grid, your bill is zero. Plus, that time won't count toward your 6-hour off-peak allowance!

What they don’t explain is how much time would they deduct from the 6hrs allowance when instead of importing ‘absolutely nothing’ from the grid the car imports but only for a short time, with the remaining time the charge coming from the solar.

QrizB

What they don’t explain is how much time would they deduct from the 6hrs allowance when instead of importing ‘absolutely nothing’ from the grid the car imports but only for a short time, with the remaining time the charge coming from the solar.

You will have had a 30-minute off-peak period during which you will have consumed electricity from the grid to charge your car. Based on what they've already said, it's safest to assume the whole 30 minutes will count towards your allowance. Feel free to ask Octopus for clarification if this is a real concern of yours; I can't see myself being affected by it, as I don't have enough PV to power my wallbox.

Of course you can avoid the risk by manually starting a boost charge rather than relying on the smart schedule. That would mean paying peak rate for whatever you import.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995359#Comment_81995359

I'm saying the same thing as QrisB, if there is any energy used from the grid then the full length of the dispatch will count against your 6 hour total allowance.

They have made a special case for the situation where there is zero grid use as that can be detected and handled, and thing more than zero and it is not possible for them to detect now much time was involved, so there is nothing special for a non-zero grid use dispatch period.

_Sam_

I suspected this too, that they would have no way to identify the precise minutes the grid was used. In which case if the approach is to count the whole 30min slot in such cases, the advice would be to switch off the smart charging when it is sunny and the car is charging from solar panels, as the user would inevitably ‘waste’ their 6hrs time allowance due to a handful of minutes/seconds the grid is used as the charger adapts to fluctuations.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81996570#Comment_81996570

It isn't quite as binary as that, each dispatch has a start and end that Octopus will know about, that could be the full 30 mins or it could be a lot less, they just can't determine how much grid power was used during that dispatch period vs the HH that is reported, so if there was any then the dispatch period will be deducted from the 6 hour allowance.

born_again

Far better to export solar & not charge car with it.

IOG gives you 12p export, but charging is far less than 12p (hard to say exactly, as many seem to have different prices now). = MSE bonus as you are making a profit. 👍

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81996778#Comment_81996778

Still a lot of people on a FiT with deemed export, for them it is usually better to charge the EV than actually export it…