@johnr Thank you JohnR, that needs looking into then! Regards, Toodles.😊

The surge management problem is an interesting challenge. One million batteries all starting to charge at 5kW is a 5GW load. IIRC, the Dinorwig pumped storage power station can produce 1.8GW in less than 10 seconds if the turbines are already spinning in air at the operating speed. The surge problem can also be mitigated by requiring the battery manufacturers to modify their software to ramp up the charging over several minutes so the generating system has more opportunity to respond. This might be easier than fiddling around with offsets which could result in batteries being out of synch with meters.

@editor DESNZ are extremely eager for Suppliers to directly link EV Tariffs to the presence of a Smart Charger.

For example, I can use Octopus Go without having a Smart Charger,
but when switching to Intelligent Octopus Go, I have to link my charger (and model of car) to Octopus via an App.

It's because that particular Octopus has a higher IQ, of course.
Their website says it can understand 280 different types of car... which is more than I can.

DESNZ are modelling the forthcoming Demand Side Response remote control of Heat Pumps on the data they've gleaned from Smart Chargers.

Here's a relevant paragraph from the Executive Summary to the Delivering a Smart and Secure Electricity System (April/May'24)

It will become a national energy consumption database.
Not only will it turn off household appliances as Demand approaches Supply, but it will issue instructions to NESO and the Power Generators to increase output.

Because the software will know which tariff we're on, it can forecast when to turn on particular power sources.
It's an all-knowing, all-seeing energy control system

Shall we call it Beyond Horizon?

Posted by: @johnr

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The surge problem can also be mitigated by requiring the battery manufacturers to modify their software to ramp up the charging over several minutes so the generating system has more opportunity to respond.

Like this...?

Posted by: @transparent

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It's an all-knowing, all-seeing energy control system

This is insane!

What happens when it breaks down (because it will)?

What happens when it gets hacked (because it will)?

What happens when working as it should it turns off your cooker when you are half way through cooking a meal?

It'll be fine @cathoderay 

DESNZ went out to consultation on it.
It's firmly founded on the feedback from the thirty of us who bothered to respond.

Posted by: @transparent

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DESNZ went out to consultation on it.

More like went out to lunch on it, m'thinks.

Just looked at the rates for the Go tariff and will have to do another exercise based on 19 hours without cheap access to the grid. It would certainly work for me out of the heating season! Rewards, Toodles.

Received an email today from British Gas informing me that I had saved the princely sum of £2.36 in November from using their cheap Sunday electricity.

Mike

I’d be interested to hear the feedback and consensus on the tariffs we discussed recently and if you agree:

So far, I'm happy with moving to Eon next. Not paid anything yet. I moved December 12. They have missing data of about 3 months. They have been very good and they said that now that they are getting my readings, they will take an average of my usage during EV and normal hours so that they can estimate the missing data percentage. I hope that make sensense. 

I stayed with Octopus for export on their fix 15p/kw. Unfortunately now that I am not buying any they want to move me to a much lower export tariff. Thankfully Eon Next has a 16.5p/kw deal for people who by energy from them so I have applied to leave the export at Octopus.

They will take me on the 18th of this month.

Posted by: @editor

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I’d be interested to hear the feedback and consensus on the tariffs we discussed recently and if you agree:

I watched it.  I found it an interesting discussion but Im not sure how much sense it would make to someone coming at this from a 'standing start'.  Thats largely, I think, a feature of the format.  An unscripted discussion between several people is not particularly good, in my opinion, at conveying the comparative information between different tariffs and for whom they may be good/poor.  Obviously thats just a personal opinion but I could imagine coming away confused rather than enlightened.  It might be worth trying to get some feedback from some people who havent given lots of thought to the matter in advance.

In answer to the question in the title I'm currently on EON Next Drive.  This gives 7 hours Midnight - 7am at 6.7p/kWh in return for about a 10% uplift on the day rate.  Its fixed price for one year until Dec 2025

The reasons for choosing this were:

• I dont have a battery (and cant make the business case pay to get one) but I do have solar panels
• I do have an EV.  The cheap rate period applies to whole consumption but they reserve the right to check if you have an EV
• The tarrif is simple so I dont need complex automations, special hardware or a battery to take advantage of it - unlike the current Octopus offerings
• Because the night time import rate is less than the export rate, I dont have to consider using excess solar power to 'displace' consumption that otherwise could be postponed to night time.  So Year-round I can just put on my EV and high capacity items at night wherever I can and it will work out cheaper even though I am self-consuming less
• Although I could get my heat pump energy cheaper (15p/kWh) with the OvO heat pump add on, once I take into account the cost for charging the EV and OVOs very low export rate, the EON tarrif works out cheaper overall

My average unit rate excluding the energy used by my EV and ignoring the solar panels - ie assuming all electricity used is imported, works out at 19.3p.  To calculate this figure I first allocate all energy used by the EV to the cheap rate (because its only charged between midnight and 7am) and then work out the average for the rest.

So it works for me which doesn't mean it works for anyone else!

Im assuming that I may well have to switch suppliers every year until tariff patterns stabilise!