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For those on octopus go/go faster. lock your lower rated for another year.

229K views 3K replies 193 participants last post by  Pmholling 
#1 ·
I just managed to extend my 14p day/5.5p (5 hours) night tariff up to jan 2023.
If yours is due to end in the next few months ( and go up to 20 something during day), try and get it renewed/fixed for 1 more year at your current price.
 
#2,394 ·
This chart might take a bit of getting your head around, however once you do you'll see that the all-day price on Tracker is pretty similar to the daily low on Agile, but then Agile jumps 10p or so in the peak period.
View attachment 178253
Agile jumps in the 4-7 peak because the formulae has a transmission cost added during these times, so is not caused by the wholesale price. EPG has been artificiallycapping this at about 34p.
  • P is the peak-time premium, which ranges from 11 - 14 based on where you are, and is only applied between 4pm and 7pm.
 
#2,396 ·
So with the July 1st tracker invites due soon anyone have any insight if we can agree one without the other?

I ask as I was looking at the gas fixed offer but I was not able to see how you could fix gas without fixing electricity as well. For those who did not know a early termination fee of £75 applies per fuel.
 
#2,397 ·
I’m already on Tracker for gas.

Currently on Agile for electric and I think I’ll be switching to Tracker for this too from 1 July.

As far as I can make out Agile is a little bit less than Tracker for the majority of the time, very occasionally (windy Saturday afternoons) it is incredibly cheaper, and between 16:00 - 19:00 every day it is about 75% more expensive.

For this reason I think Tracker will end up being around the same cost for me, but without having to consider 48 price changes every day.
 
#2,400 ·
Why would you want to fix (and be locked in too?) at such seemingly high prices? Surely tracker is a much better bet isn’t it? Fixing is a great idea when prices are at a low, but surely not at those prices? Isn’t the expectation that prices will fall still further In the coming year or am I missing something here?

I find it rather disappointing that Octopus have now just broken their previous universal policy of never having exit fees on any tariffs. That was one of the major Octopus benefits I always preached when trying to get F&F to switch.
 
#2,401 ·
My question was more relating to the what seemed new idea of gas and electric tariffs only being available together and if this might apply with tracker offers

Example if on the first i get offers of both tracker gas and electric can I accept gas only. I am doubtful electric tracker will work out cheaper than agile paying just under 16p kWh avr or IO over winter
 
#2,418 · (Edited)
Would someone mind sanity checking this for me to make sure I have it right? I’m on Octopus Go at the moment and today I got the invite to move to electricity tracker and I’m trying to work out if it’s worth it or not.

Unfortunately I don’t have a full years worth of data as i only moved to Octopus in December. But from then I have consistently used approx 50/50 on peak/off peak.
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I reckon if the figures shown above were at todays new Go prices of 30.27p/9.5p then it would average 20p per kWh and therefore I am better off taking the tracker as long as it stays below 20p. Is my maths correct?

We don’t have solar or batteries, etc at the moment so there’s not really any way to offload anything else to off peak, and the wife has put a stop to me running the dishwasher at night due to a minor leak incident (now repaired) the other week
 
#2,421 ·
Would someone mind sanity checking this for me to make sure I have it right? I’m on Octopus Go at the moment and today I got the invite to move to electricity tracker and I’m trying to work out if it’s worth it or not.

Unfortunately I don’t have a full years worth of data as i only moved to Octopus in December. But from then I have consistently used approx 50/50 on peak/off peak. View attachment 178721 View attachment 178721

I reckon if the figures shown above were at todays new Go prices of 30.27p/9.5p then it would average 20p per kWh and therefore I am better off taking the tracker as long as it stays below 20p. Is my maths correct?

We don’t have solar or batteries, etc at the moment so there’s not really any way to offload anything else to off peak, and the wife has put a stop to me running the dishwasher at night due to a minor leak incident (now repaired) the other week
Similar consumption and peak/off-peak balance to me. I’m going with Go. Although I suspect Tracker will be cheaper for some months, I prefer Go's predictability. Occasionally, life gets busy and I can't guarantee I will notice when I should bail from a volatile tariff.

When I signed up to Go, I noticed a new term that wasn't there for my previous Go Faster:

'You can switch away from our Octopus Go tariff to one of our standard tariffs any time without financial penalty, but you can't move back to one of our smart tariffs (Agile Octopus or Octopus Go) within 30 days.' [my emphasis]

Just something for people to be aware of.
 
#2,420 ·
The maths is super-simple:

(1800 * 0.095) + (1800 * 0.3) = 711
3600 * 0.2 = 720

Therefore with Tracker at 20p and Go at 9.5/30p on face value costs are close enough to bet the same.

However, Go is a faff. Imagine you get home on single digits and need to go on a long journey first thing you might need 10hrs of charging and Go can’t accommodate that economically.

On the other hand 50:50 is a weak effort on Go. I get over 90% of my consumption in the cheap period!
 
#2,422 · (Edited)
Thanks for replying. Your simple maths pretty much confirms my more complicated method, that around 20p for tracker is the break even point for me.

Yes Go can be a faff sometimes. It works well for day to day use, but on the occasions I’ve gone on a long trip, I’ve had to plan things and charge up over 2 or 3 nights prior to going.

Yes I know 50:50 isn’t great compared to what some people are getting, but we don’t have solar or battery (it is a planned future upgrade). We also have an electric oven and one of those electric clothes driers which are responsible for a lot of the cost, although neither get used that much during the summer months.

As I said the wife has also now banned me from using the watery appliances (washing machine and dishwasher) during the night and I can’t think of any other way to shift anything else to off peak.

I’ve been on the gas tracker for a few months now so am used to monitoring the prices daily, and I am definitely saving money on that. I think I will give the electricity tracker a go for a while and see how it works out.
 
#2,423 ·
I’ve moved to tracker purely as it will be cheaper over the summer with the heat pump not running and will help me build a cash reserve going into the winter. I’ll check things on Go as it gets closer to winter But I was unable to get any lower than a 21p average with the ASHP going so trackers a no brainier at least for now. But who knows with how things are going!
 
#2,436 ·
IO is convenient (I hope) if you've been a customer before. I did a test and the app still lets me do a test charge so hioping I won't need to contact CS. I should probably switch at some point this week even if just to get the cheaper peak rate. Not a big issue with solar and battery as its fractions, but the off peak is cheaper too now than go faster and covers more time (I'm on 5H at the moment from 0130-0630)
 
#2,437 ·
I switched last week.

There really wasn't much in it, my old Go Faster was 7.5/40p and my new IO is 7.5/30p but I don't use very much grid power this time of year and hardly any peak-priced electric.

Winter will be when the additional cheap slots (the 2hrs guaranteed and the additional intelligent ones) really make a difference.
 
#2,464 ·
I have been reading the foreign press on LNG supplies. The ‘experts‘ agree that gas will be tight in Europe. The major European countries all cut gas consumption significantly last year on the price increase which adds a an extra dimension to guessing where the market will be in Q4. As I have said before gas storage across Europe is higher now than anytime before except 2020. It is expected that the European storage will be full by the end of September when additional storage will be sought. One option is to store it in Ukraine but insurance may be impossible. The pundits are saying that delivery of sufficient gas is in balance and it requires consumers across Europe to cut back like last year, though this year’s lower price may not motivate such savings nor can we bet on another warm winter. It would be interesting if the government decided to put a small levy on gas to ensure the cost to households was similar or a bit less than last year (without other subsidies needed) to keep demand lower for everyone’s benefit in the long run.

On the supply side, Spain has opened a new terminal to receive LNG for domestic consumption, it wasn’ t clear whether this would link to France in future but I am guessing that is the case from the vague text which said it will eventually help Europe. Also Canada has a new pipeline owned by Shell Canada, which is expected to open at the end of the year sending shale gas to the Pacific coast for loading for the far east market. New supplies are being sold from Malaysia to Japan, which will reduce reliance on some Qatari gas this year.

From this week’s offshore news it is clear that whilst all the turbines are up in SeaGreen much more cabling within the array is needed. The print of the map is difficult to read but it looks like only 60% of turbines are on strings connected to the offshore substation. So come Autumn we will benefit from 450MW of power more than now, and 1.1 GW since last winter. Voltaire is currently moored off Hartlepool undergoing final trials. She was due to start work today but as of tonight she has not moved. I have it on good authority from the SSE marine co=ordinator that all is well? I asked why she was missing from this week’s notice to Mariners and got a friendly reply, she ain’t on contract yet! The work on Dogger Bank A moves quickly with almost a third of the monopoles and transition pieces in place. Without examining the weekly reports in detail it seems that work progresses in little spurts, but it is progressing well and just might be energised by the end of September!
 
#2,465 · (Edited)
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#2,467 ·
Octopus have finally sent me a bill for most of June so I can do a comparison between what I actually paid for Agile and what I would have paid if I had been on Tracker. This is to inform my decision as to whether to switch to Tracker or not.

I had comparative data for 1/6/23 - 25/6/23. Agile was cheaper for 15 of those days, Tracker for the other 10 ,but either way it was just pennies or sometimes fractions of a penny in it.

If it wasn't for last weekend's "plunge pricing" I would have already switched, but as it is I'm tempted to stick with Agile for now so I can take advantage of any future plunges. The trick is to avoid the 1600-1900 Agile penalty period each day as much as possible - on the days where Tracker beat Agile for me this is where it seems to have managed it.
 
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