Has Intelligent Octopus Flux changed it's scheduling patterns recently?

traditionalvalues

We have SolarEdge panels and battery and joined IOF last autumn.

We had problems with the smart meter signal so there were a lot of errors reported, related to their instructions not being effected, but this was sorted with a new aerial in November 2025.

While I was trying to understand the problem prior to November, Octopus gave me the error details and they were occurring based on scheduling of max 3 or 4 times a day to charge mostly from the solar and the grid during the day, and discharging between 4pm and 7pm.

I continued to ask for error messages into 2026 as I have a different problem with SolarEdge, and the scheduling was still in blocks.

Very recently I have noticed our battery is charging and discharging at lots of different times. I also think it is sometimes pulling off the grid and not discharging between 4pm and 7pm if the solar is not powerful enough, so we are paying the higher import tariff.
We use as little energy as possible between 4pm and 7pm, as recommended by Octopus.
I know there is always a "few seconds change over" between the solar/battery/grid if the energy source is insufficient, but I don't think this is what it is.

Our battery is currently showing a lot of charging and discharging periods during the day and the night.
I rang Octopus and was told their scheduling is every 30 minutes. I asked if this is a recent change from block scheduling and was told it isn't, but comparing the current battery with say February when the solar levels would probably be similar, there is a marked difference.

I know the IOF has not been available to join since March 2026 unless you have bought panels/battery from Octopus and can see 30 min scheduling may also benefit Octopus.

I have searched online for anyone posting that this has been changed, but found nothing.

Has anyone else seen a difference in their charging/discharging patterns?

Peter999_2

I've been on IOF since March 2026 and yes, I've noticed in the last couple of weeks it has been discharging during the off-peak times. It also now doesn't discharge to 20% anymore between 4pm and 7pm - it now seems to discharge to about 30% so a I lose out a bit. I'm still exporting more than I import and it pays for my gas as well (they paid me about £60 last month) so I'm happy with it.

debitcardmayhem

I've noticed it often cuts out discharge early when there is a saving session, when I have a happy hour or two it has stopped me charging when I am on a free time. There have been other annoyances too, I have just ditched it for the winter/permanently perhaps,going to try Axle with flux for a while.

traditionalvalues

Strangely - after my post above, Octopus discharged our battery last evening from 16:00 at 99% to 18:45 at 11%, understandably because it had been a horrendous day with very little solar production. But they then started charging the battery from 18:45 at 11% to 19:00 at 13%, and continued until 38% at 21:30.This means we were being charged the higher rate for import from the grid to charge our battery from 18:45 to 19:00.

I know Octopus say they will only discharge down to 20%, but it is very often lower than that, so that should not be reason to recharge at the higher rate.

We have our own reserve set at 40% because we have a backup facility that uses the battery if the grid goes off, as we are on the end of a line and are often the last to be reconnected.