Octopus Intelligent Go 6 hour changes being rolled out.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81999426#Comment_81999426

However if the Octopus approach is to deduct the entire 30min from the 6hrs allowance even in cases where the car charged from the grid for only a few minutes out of that 30min period, then the only option is to switch off the smart charging when there is an opportunity to charge from solar, unless the user doesn’t mind spending their 6hrs allowance in such a disproportionate way.

You are combining two separate issues.

The amount deducted from the 6 hour allowance will be the length of the delivered dispatch, so if that takes 20 mins then that is what would be deducted from the allowance.

However if there is no grid consumption during the 30 min period that contains that 20min charge then the 20 mins would not be deducted.

What Octopus cannot determine is the difference between a 20 min dispatch that was entirely covered by solar followed by 10 min period where some grid energy was used to support a continued solar charge and a 20 min dispatch that used some grid energy. So in both cases the 20 min dispatch would be deducted from the total allowance.

QrizB

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81991378#Comment_81991378

Well it's the end of May, I'm on Ohme app version 2.21.1 (2020674) which is two updates since the 8th of May and still no sign of the "charge cap".

Has anyone else with an Ohme charger seen this function live? Do people with other chargers have the Charge Cap in their Octopus app?

MattMattMattUK

Octopus charges my car with direct control of the vehicle (Tesla) so they could implement this change without needing to alter any third party software and have not yet done so. I am guessing there are complications because they are wanting to bill based on usage measured on a device which is not a meter, which is always going to introduce complications.

Reed_Richards

You can't measure usage on a device which is not a meter because you don't know the conversion efficiency between input energy and stored energy. The best you could do would be to take the start and stop timings from the device and use those to determine which of the half-hourly meter read segments the device was charging for.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82018199#Comment_82018199

They will bill based on your smart meter just as they always have, the difference is that if you go over the 6 hours in the low-rate period overnight, you will be billed at the peak-rate, and then rebated to allow for the home use.

That rebate does not require a certified meter, and it is the way several EV tariffs have worked for a while now.

chrisw

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82018452#Comment_82018452

Whether measuring the actual amount or subtracting an amount to give the home consumption, a meter needs to be involved to measure the quantities. Why doesn't it need certification for the subtraction?

Qyburn

If I understand this correctly Octopus are saying there's an absolute limit of six hours car charging. So quite possible to have reached this limit before the end of the daily off peak cheap rate 23:30 to 05:30. If that happens they'd have to bill charging aat different price from other use.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82018847#Comment_82018847

Because it is a bill rebate, not a billed amount and the validity of that has already been tested with other EV tariffs.

The charge has to be properly metered, a rebate can be based on anything really…

noitsnotme

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82018140#Comment_82018140

It still says “Coming soon” in my Octopus app.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82019473#Comment_82019473

The changes are still in testing at the moment, so no news for the majority of customers yet.