Posted by: @chandykris

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@batpred Unfortunately, we were on Octopus Go variable and decided to move to Octopus Go fixed thanks to geopolitical chaos, and ended up at 9.5p per kWh. Sounds extortionate when compared to your 3.5p!! So, don't mind some free electricity for our EV.

Interesting. 

I am on OG Variable and the night time rate is 6.5p.  Thats not an advertised rate and I questioned it, because I was considering getting the kit to move to IOG fixed/variable, but with the advertised IOG rates it made no sense. 

I got a response which was pretty obfuscating, but which I interpret to mean that they fiddled with the rates for pre-existing customers to ensure that the April-Jun price (on any given tarrif) was lower than both the advertised rate and the previous rate. No idea what will happen in June!  I decided it would not be in my interest to question too deeply!

I suspect that they are doing some juggling, which is not surprising given the mess that has been made by foreign powers.

@jamespa I got some confusing responses too and hence decided to just bite the bullet and fix it. Frustratingly, the day I fixed I was offered 7p, but by the time I clicked the accept terms link they sent me it automatically increased to 9.5p. I tried questioning why didn't they tell me on the switch screen that the new rate is increased than what I signed up for, but again got just apologies about system glitch and further confusing answers 

I see that IOG has 3.5p, 5.2p, 7p and 8p, while Octopus Go has 5p, 6.5p, 7p and 9.5p across various customers. It's a right mess and like you say, to reduce rates across all their customers, they have had to fudge their pricing algorithms. Maybe, it's time to get some extra solar installed. Been thinking about adding some panels on a garden bar (just a pergola and a sheltered place to have some beer in the garden) for a while. If plugin solar gets approved in the UK, might just go for it 

Posted by: @chandykris

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I see that IOG has 3.5p, 5.2p, 7p and 8p, while Octopus Go has 5p, 6.5p, 7p and 9.5p across various customers. It's a right mess and like you say, to reduce rates across all their customers, they have had to fudge their pricing algorithms. 

It sounds like my iog rate could be short-lived... I think it was 7p before April. I wonder why they would not have adjusted other customers.. 

At the moment, with the raised rates for agile export, a 16kw battery is consistently reversing our electricity bill

After seeing umpteen negative price slots again today, I wanted to take advantage and get some green charging done. On opening the Podpoint app last night, I spotted a new way to smart charge from Podpoint, albeit on a completely new app called Pod Home. It primarily works similar to Octopus taking control of charging. Neither Podpoint chargers nor Mercedes EVs are compatible with IOG. But Podpoint could use my Mercedes Me login to connect to the car and access the settings. When I plugged in, it automatically selected the greenest times during early morning today. Podpoint gets the current and target charge percentage from the car and automatically identifies the greenest slots.

On further research, it looks like EDF acquired Podpoint late last year and this is part of their grid flexibility plan. EDF must get paid for the smart charging and they pass it on as Podpoint rewards, which I can take it out after a threshold. So, looks like my EV charging got 20% cheaper!! We are a low mileage household anyway, but still good to see some incentives for effectively helping out the grid.

@chandykris Having checked the Agile rates each day during this unseasonably sunny week or more, I notice that the influence of abundant sunshine has far less influence on the Agile HH rates than wind power does; from this I conclude that the majority of renewable energy does not emanate from solar panel energy harvesting! Regards, Toodles.

@toodles I keep an eye on wholesale prices and energy mix too. The pattern I see is that when both solar and wind are abundant, we get the negative or very low prices. When solar is abundant but wind is low, the prices are still high. With wind being abundant but there's no or less solar, the prices are relatively low as in less than £100 per MWh. I wonder whether the large but older utility scale farms have high rates locked in, which means despite the high contribution from solar, prices are still high if there's not much wind. Just a guess, if I can spend a bit of time downloading the data, probably can knock a multivariate regression model and draw inferences. One for a lazy summer Sunday afternoon!