Octopus saving sessions coming 1st Nov

[nowty]

@sw25481, how large is your solar array ?

[dlw]

I got a big fat 0 for my last savings session even though I was fully off grid and at least 2 days in the 10 before I was on grid during the evening (batteries didn't charge and wife decorating)

[sw25481]

@sw25481, how large is your solar array ?

I used all my prime roof real estate with evacuated tubes from elsewhere

I have squeezed 2.725 kW PV on a flat roof that is never shaded and 3.24kW on a flat garage roof that has all sorts of challenges in the winter but great in the summer. I mounted both this Autumn so best day so far was in Oct where I generated 12kWh. Yesterday was 1.3kWh

[nowty]

I have squeezed 2.725 kW PV on a flat roof that is never shaded and 3.24kW on a flat garage roof that has all sorts of challenges in the winter but great in the summer. I mounted both this Autumn so best day so far was in Oct where I generated 12kWh. Yesterday was 1.3kWh

That 1.3kWh would have outperformed most folk yesterday as flattish panels do better in cloudy conditions.
My 13kW of panels only made 1.6kWh yesterday, second worst day for me in the entire year.

We've been getting a good variety of DIY installs recently and it gives others ideas of where panels can fit when otherwise suitable places are overlooked.

[nowty]

This time I have definitely opted in and am now fully OffGrid.

15 mins to go.

[dlw]

So that one went and now we have another tomorrow, probably get Zero for both

[nowty]

You still get into a £500 draw and you might get a guaranteed number of points for simply being in the last one.

[nowty]

I don't know what's going on here !, I expected to get another 8 points (1p) for saving session 4 but I got 2584. How ?

I'm still owed 1000 points for being in the top 10% of savers in the first session (percentage wise) and I got £4 customer service compensation for not correctly opting into the second session.

I suspect there will be another session this weekend (Sunday ?) as its very cold and little wind, might even be the first official national grid one.

[nowty]

Following on from my last post, I received an email saying,

"You saved 0.004kWh on 30th November, and 1.433kWh on 1st December. That's earned you 2592 OctoPoints – worth £3.24."

Now I believe I should have saved approx a similar low amount of 0.004 kWh on both occasions so where on earth does my alleged saving of 1.433kWh on 1st December come from ? Octopus do mention a mysterious "in day adjustment" but they don't explain it.

The only odd thing about my 1st Dec usage is the fact that I had an internet outage and I accidently turned my router off which led to some import immediately before and immediately after the session. Looks a bit suspicious to me, maybe I'll burn 1kWh immediately before and after the next event to see what happens, but it will cost me.

[nowty]

OK, I read something on a FB group which seems to explain what is going on here and how this "could" be advantageous for us battery folk.

I now know what the "in day" adjustment is and why Octopus seem to keep it a secret.

The National Grid Demand Flexibility Service doc is quite a hard read but go to the last couple of pages.
https://www.nationalgrideso.com/documen ... DkWWhO9_-Q

If you don't want to read it all and I don't blame you, it seems that if we say "T" is the start time of the saving session.

• T minus 4 hours, everything on, dont waste it but maybe you have an EV to charge or a dinner to cook , max it out for the next 3 hours, pretend its cheap rate even though its not. And you will be billed for it at peak rate so don't blame me if I've got it wrong.
  Obviously you will need to disable your battery system during those 3 hours or better still, set it to charge from the grid.

• T minus 1 hour, turn everything off, go back to normal.

• T Time - Save as usual for the whole of the saving session.

The theory is if you generally use nothing as you have a battery, then whatever you used in that 3 hour peak rate splurge, the half hour average should become very close to your new baseline value to which you are measured against during the saving session.

The last couple of pages from the National Grid Demand Flexibility Service doc, copied below,

"BL01 Step 3 – Calculate In Day Adjustment (only applies to ‘Domestic’ DFS Unit Types)
The Unadjusted Baseline Values create a profile shape for a day based on previous days’ data, but
will not account fully for variations in factors such as weather and temperature. For this reason, In
Day Adjustments are used to provide an up or down lift, ensuring the values used in settlement
calculations are better representative of conditions on the day.

The In Day Adjustment will consider actual Metered data over the three hour period up until one
hour ahead of the relevant Settlement Period when the service starts to deliver. This will be
compared to the calculated values and an additive adjustment applied to ensure that the profile
created by the baseline best matches real data for the run up to the Settlement Period. In other
words:

In Day Adjustment = ∑j (Unit Meter Point Metered Volume – Unadjusted Baseline Value) / 6

where ∑j represents summation over the six Settlement Periods in the “In Day Reference Window”.

The In Day Reference Window is defined as the three-hour period ending at one hour ahead of the
first Settlement Period in Settlement Day D.

BL01 Step 4 – Calculate Baseline Values
Demand Flexibility Service | Procurement Rules

For each ‘Domestic’ Unit Meter Point (and each Settlement Period within Settlement Day D),

Baseline Value is calculated as:
Baseline Value = Unadjusted Baseline Value + In Day Adjustment"