Octopus Go/Go faster - enforcing "EVs only" ??

[Burble61]

So when I checked with their customer services it was "no, we're not enforcing that".

When i checked response with someone more senior it was "oh yes we are, for new customers and renewals"

That will be the "award winning customer service" kicking in then! (And yes, having run a large customer service organisation i understand the difficulties in getting consistent messages out. The means to do that have been easily implementable for some time).

The position of restricting cheaper tariffs to the already well off seems pretty questionable to me....

I guess Octopus are throwing money out the door as fast as all the other energy companies right now. And the "Go" tarrifs probably lose more money than average. Particularly when one of us lot get ahold of it.

Octopus would probably rather an "ordinary" BEV-owning family use the Go tariff. The sort of people who use power perfectly normally and other than charge their car during the cheap period go about business as normal. Other ToU tariffs have often come with a clause insisting that 50% (or whatever) of your electricity use has to be "peak". Us lot with our over-sized solar arrays, and big battery packs, who get very upset at the prospect of using a single kWh of "peak" electricity, are never going to be their target market, BEV or no-BEV.

I think they are better hedged than some (most?) but yeah a question of degree. The year ahead markets are looking a little saner though.

Hmmh you could be right. I suspect the only target market we fit into is "Edge Case"

[nowty]

One of their conditions for the "Go tariff" is .................. (not sure if this is new change or not),

Have an electric car and a home EV charger
Our Octopus Go Tariff is designed for customers who either own or long-term lease a battery electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid vehicle that they'll be charging at home, so you need one to join. If you sign up without one, or you're in the process of getting one, we'll be here to help find you another tariff that's more suitable for your setup in the meantime.


But if your like me, I practically always charge at home but for the majority of the year its all from Solar / home batteries so not from Octopus. I think there is a condition for my Octopus Intelligence tariff that I have to have at least one verified charge every 6 months which means I might have to shut down my battery inverter one night in July.

[Burble61]

Yeah its a new change, last couple of weeks. I think the condition was previously "we might..."

Octopus didn't actually announce it, only became noted when someone got the message from customer services when enquiring, and he helpfully posted it on FB. Seems like exactly the behaviours of the big energy's Octopus say they are not like!

A new property is on the cards in the not too distant future (i'm told). We'll defo be going down that route of significant over provision on PV - well when the current price spike on panels goes away....

[nowty]

Someone else on here who has Octopus Agile Outgoing had some new terms and conditions a few months back, I don't have them word for word, but one of the conditions says something along the lines of,

We are not obliged to pay for export from batteries.

Now their FAQs says they do and the person is currently being paid out for battery forced export at peak times but Octopus are obviously covering themselves if they have to pull the plug on that with little notice.

[Stinsy]

Someone else on here who has Octopus Agile Outgoing had some new terms and conditions a few months back, I don't have them word for word, but one of the conditions says something along the lines of,

We are not obliged to pay for export from batteries.

Now their FAQs says they do and the person is currently being paid out for battery forced export at peak times but Octopus are obviously covering themselves if they have to pull the plug on that with little notice.

I don’t understand why any of this should be needed?

Surely with Agile import you pay a margin over the wholesale price and Agile export they pay you a margin under the wholesale price. If the prices are set right users should be encouraged to import and export as much as possible. Their batteries are providing a service to the grid by charging “off-peak” and discharging “peak”.

[nowty]

Someone else on here who has Octopus Agile Outgoing had some new terms and conditions a few months back, I don't have them word for word, but one of the conditions says something along the lines of,

We are not obliged to pay for export from batteries.

Now their FAQs says they do and the person is currently being paid out for battery forced export at peak times but Octopus are obviously covering themselves if they have to pull the plug on that with little notice.

I don’t understand why any of this should be needed?

Surely with Agile import you pay a margin over the wholesale price and Agile export they pay you a margin under the wholesale price. If the prices are set right users should be encouraged to import and export as much as possible. Their batteries are providing a service to the grid by charging “off-peak” and discharging “peak”.

In normal times, yes I agree with you but at the moment the real wholesale (day ahead price) price per kWh has been 50p or even higher but the Agile import price to the consumer is capped at 35p / kWh. So at the moment your not paying a margin over the wholesale price, your getting it at a huge discount. And as there is no cap on the Agile export price, thats been up to over 200p / kWh at the peak times.

[Burble61]

Very true at getting leccy at discount to wholesale. But (simplistically) thats the “spot” market.

Octopus will be well hedged against that (those retailers going out of business wouldn’t have had that, or not had enough).

Of course those hedges expire at some point….

Whoever Octopus restrict it to, i’d be surprised if the off-peak GO rates dont increase significantly at some point

[Stinsy]

Very true at getting leccy at discount to wholesale. But (simplistically) thats the “spot” market.

Octopus will be well hedged against that (those retailers going out of business wouldn’t have had that, or not had enough).

Of course those hedges expire at some point….

Whoever Octopus restrict it to, i’d be surprised if the off-peak GO rates dont increase significantly at some point

I’d be really disappointed if the off-peak price went up. Surely once the wind gets blowing the wholesale price will go negative overnight like it used to? The peak price has historically been too low. I’m not complaining but 15p never did make sense.

Also, I count 7 reactors that are currently offline that are expected to be back online Oct/Nov this year. That should help keep the wholesale overnight prices low.

[robl]

Anybody recently get Octopus Go, without an EV, and what was your experience? Does Octopus actually care for some reason, or are they ‘helpfully’ trying to avoid inappropriate tariffs for regular electricity users?
Asking for a friend who’s just got PV and batts, no EV.
Noted that the export rate for go has quietly jumped up to 15p !

[nowty]

Anybody recently get Octopus Go, without an EV, and what was your experience? Does Octopus actually care for some reason, or are they ‘helpfully’ trying to avoid inappropriate tariffs for regular electricity users?
Asking for a friend who’s just got PV and batts, no EV.
Noted that the export rate for go has quietly jumped up to 15p !

If you change online, typically you tick the box which says you agree to the terms and conditions, one of which says you have an EV.

Yes, Octopus Go has quietly jumped from 8p up to 15p export but, also as quietly the "Fixed" rate export tariff has been changed to a variable "Flat" rate tariff for new customers or those renewing. Subtle wording changes to the "Outgoing Octopus" page and the FAQ's have occurred since the beginning of the month confirming its now a variable tariff.