Some information about solar export to Octopus Energy

[Les burrows]

Please find below a copy of an email received by my son from Octopus energy today with regard to Solar PV export payments some of you may already be aware of this but some might not be.
Les

Hi, In the midst of an energy crisis it’s nice to be able to share a little good news:we’re doubling the rate of your Outgoing Fixed export tariff. This means every kWh you export - previously paid at 7.5p/kWh - is now worth 15p/kWh. This change has already gone live as of the 20th September. You don’t need to do anything, we’ll take a reading from your smart meter and increase your export payment rate. It’s more important than ever to ditch fossil fuels, and move to lovely green electricity as fast as we possibly can. We believe our energy system needs to become more flexible, more decentralised, and full of as many green electrons as possible. Thanks for being a pioneer on that journey. Love & (green) Power, Alex Schoch Head of Flexibility The Octopus Energy Team Unsubscribe from our ema​

 

[BugEyed]

About time that SEG payments were increased. Pity that this is another element of the market that has failed.

 

[BarryH]

Is Octopus Go and other TOU Tariffs for EV Owners Dead?

I have my "Fixed" Go contract ending in December which of course after the "Government's new price cap guarantee" kicks in on October 1st. The only information I can glean from anywhere is that when Fixed price contracts be adjusted down to the new "Government's new price cap guarantee" if the fixed is higher and when they end customers will transition to the new Capped tariff.

Nowhere can I find what the policy is for dual Time Of Day tariffs such as Go and Go Faster. If the simplistic strategy is to put everyone onto the capped tariff then I'll have a 29p /kWh increase on 60% of my consumption for which I've currently scheduled between 00:30 and 04:30!!!!

The impact of this Nationally, would be to destroy any incentive to load shift and be detrimental to the Grid Balancing and investment in Battery Storage, Zero Emission Boilers (like Tepo) and any other load shifting ie EV home Charging.

Is there any announcement you are aware of because I can't get anything out of Octopus Energy?

 

[ayres]

Moved to octopus agile beginning of year been averaging 19p/kw pay back.

 

[Gomev]

Moved to octopus agile beginning of year been averaging 19p/kw pay back.

Blimey how much have you been paying for electricity when needed ?

 

[BarryH]

Moved to octopus agile beginning of year been averaging 19p/kw pay back.

19p Av that's interesting. I've been checking Agile prices on the Octopus App throughout the year and very rarely seen plunge pricing in action taking Agile below the max since wholesale prices have been so high. Lots of people have moved to Go for that reason and when i spoke to Octopus they advised me not to go onto Agile as it would cost me more.

However, yesterday I went on "Love My EV" and did an EV Tariff search and they recommended the best for my usage would be Ecotricity saving £799 followed closely by Octopus Agile saving £789 even though Agile is currently running at 35p for every ½hour slot which is 1p above the Government Guarantee Capped Tariff which will be coming in a week from now on 1st Oct.

I've run my own back of an envelope calculations based on my current 60% off-peak and 40% Day-rate usage pattern to calculate my average cost per kWh and since this is a ratio of off-peak to peak the actual total usage is irrelevant:

My current Octopus Go (Dec 21) of 24.5p and 5p the Average cost is 12.8p/kWh.
Comparing this to the current Octopus Go (which my daughter switched to yesterday afternoon) of 40p and 7.5p the Average cost is 20.5p/kWh.

 

[Collected]

We are on Octopus outgoing agile, and so can't be on a Go tariff, but we have quite a good fixed rate until end of spring next year. Outgoing agile has been brilliant over the summer, our export has more than covered out import of both gas and electric, with a healthy contribution to the winter use pot. In August we got an average of >40p per unit exported and a net profit of £50 for the month, on a 6kW system with a 11kW battery. And we didn't play the system, we let the battery fill up and heat the water before exporting, no forced export. Coming into winter I am sure it won't be so lurcative, especially with (hopefully) getting a bigger EV battery to fill and lower mi/kwh due to the weather.

 

[BarryH]

We are on Octopus outgoing agile, and so can't be on a Go tariff, but we have quite a good fixed rate until end of spring next year. Outgoing agile has been brilliant over the summer, our export has more than covered out import of both gas and electric, with a healthy contribution to the winter use pot. In August we got an average of >40p per unit exported and a net profit of £50 for the month, on a 6kW system with a 11kW battery. And we didn't play the system, we let the battery fill up and heat the water before exporting, no forced export. Coming into winter I am sure it won't be so lurcative, especially with (hopefully) getting a bigger EV battery to fill and lower mi/kwh due to the weather.

Thanks for sharing but it does frustrate me that I ordered in early March a 4.8 kW PV, Hybrid inverter with 7.8 kWH battery which ought to have been installed and commissioned by the end of May, but one thing after another wasn't available. 22 September install was missed because the optimisers were not available. Had I known how these delays would pan out I would have done two separate orders with two companies. One for a PV system and the other for AC-connected battery storage and I would have had both in and working months ago. The lost benefit of this past summer would have more than covered the marginal efficiency gains i'll be getting from an integrated system when it arrives.

 

[Collected]

Thanks for sharing but it does frustrate me that I ordered in early March a 4.8 kW PV, Hybrid inverter with 7.8 kWH battery which ought to have been installed and commissioned by the end of May, but one thing after another wasn't available. 22 September install was missed because the optimisers were not available. Had I known how these delays would pan out I would have done two separate orders with two companies. One for a PV system and the other for AC-connected battery storage and I would have had both in and working months ago. The lost benefit of this past summer would have more than covered the marginal efficiency gains i'll be getting from an integrated system when it arrives.

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. The combination of demand and (chip) supply issues is having problems in both EV and PV markets. Hope you manage to get installed soon and start feeling the benefits. We get a good few sunny days over winter too.

 

[Les burrows]

Thanks for sharing but it does frustrate me that I ordered in early March a 4.8 kW PV, Hybrid inverter with 7.8 kWH battery which ought to have been installed and commissioned by the end of May, but one thing after another wasn't available. 22 September install was missed because the optimisers were not available. Had I known how these delays would pan out I would have done two separate orders with two companies. One for a PV system and the other for AC-connected battery storage and I would have had both in and working months ago. The lost benefit of this past summer would have more than covered the marginal efficiency gains i'll be getting from an integrated system when it arrives.

Hi Barry just seen this and I do feel for you,
the world of solar PV as gone daft you may recall I was trying to extend my array but have been let down so many times in the last 5/6 months that I have given up now, so many wild and shilly prices and so many people tell me they can’t take on anymore orders I have forgot about it for the time being, but I wish you luck and hope you get something soon I know you said it has cost you some loss of benefits in this last summer but there are many more to come in the future when you final get sorted good luck with it anyhow.
Les

 

[BarryH]

I'm diliberating on whether I should bring forward my Octopus Go contract renewal before October 1st to secure the current 40p/7.5p rates and cancel my existing 24.5p/5p 10 weeks early. Who knows what the Go rates will be after October 1st. My daughter did hers last week instead of waiting until the first week of November.

Currently, I'm using 60% on the 5p rate, but when the battery arrives I'd expect to shift a further 7 kWh from the Daytime peak-rate to the night-time Go off-peak rate so 85%-90% could be at off-peak. So I should really only concern myself with the cost of the off-peak - as long as the wretched battery arrives soon!

 

[JimD]

Good news for me - I just had solar pv installed a few weeks ago and I'm with Octopus. I'm still waiting for my DNO letter though, so I can't apply for my export tariff yet.