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Probably not the right sub forum but not sure which one is. However I got an email today from Bulb telling me that, because they are not my energy supplier, and I am only contracted with them to feed in my solar on a Smart Export Guarantee basis, that they are reducing my rate to 3p per kWh, as "It costs us more to provide Export Payments to homes powered by other suppliers".

I am with Octopus for my supply.

All rather disappointing. So now I am on the hunt for which combination of import / export works best. Can't switch to Octopus Outgoing tariff because you can't have that at the same time as Octopus Go.

Any thoughts from people who have had the same issue?

 

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Yeah, me too. Clearly a commercial decision to attract people to switch to them for supply - the "it costs us more" nonsense is just that - nonsense. But if they think they will force me to become a supply customer with their manoeuvring they are way off.

Would be interesting to know what you find out when you get a response from Octopus - I don't quite understand why you can have their SEG on Agile but not on Go.

Otherwise, looks like a switch to OVO. It almost halves the loss.

 

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Worth a thought - thanks both. It will be interesting to see how much my job role will go back to pre pandemic normal, which involved around 25k miles a year on the road. I suspect it will never go back to that because we have proved we can do the job remotely so why would customers incur expenses when we can hook up on Teams in a few moments.

I hope it doesn't forever stay like now though otherwise I might have to change careers as I cant bear the thought of another 10 years cocooned in my study like I am cut off from society. But if the number of days working at home stays high, the trickle charging on solar as much as possible may be part of the solution. Maybe getting an Ohme instead of a Zappi will turn out to be the wrong choice. Ah well...

 

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I guess that's the issue - people with battery storage. But no reason why they couldn't cap the export tariff at the minimum price you pay for import so you can never make "free money" by creative use of the battery usage timings.

 

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As an update on this. Octopus finally got back to me. They won’t even offer the 3p reduced rate while on Go Faster, let alone the usual 5.5p rate.

Did a bit more digging and I found So Energy might have a rate of 5p, bettering the next best option of OVO at 4p. Have emailed them as their website doesn’t make it clear what the rate is currently. If it is still 5p will come back and confirm again. They will take switchers who don’t have their supply with them so fingers crossed.....

Brilliant - thanks James.

 

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I have some good news. So Energy got back to me after I contacted them on Facebook messenger yesterday. Their rate is 5p and will be a fixed 12 month rate 👍 This beats OVO’s 4p, and Bulbs reduced 3p rate. Seems this is the best bet to sit alongside Octopus Go, so I’ll be putting in my switch appn from Bulb later.

Super. I'll be doing the same. Thanks again James.