[Jeffrey Cooper]

I was really happy with our new Agile tariff, getting up at 2:30 in the morning to set the tumble dryer going etc (only joking, thanks to delay start!) but these last couple of days the rates have been getting distinctly higher, with the average getting to the point where it doesn't make up for having the oven on at 16:30. Has anyone had enough time with this tariff to know wether this is simply a blip, or is it likely to continue till spring ?

 

[Edd Beesley]

No, as soon as the wind picks up it will drop again. And I am sure over christmas there will be many plunge/negative pricing events.

You need a small house battery to cover your non-shiftable 4PM-7PM demand.

 

[Jeffrey Cooper]

good to hear its probably a "calm" blip, but the idea of spending what, £2K on a battery and a 3kw output inverter just to save about £80 a year isn't going to fly !!

 

[TrevorH]

Not low tomorrow daytime either but looking at usage over a month still better off than other tariffs. Like everybody will keep an eye on what happens with Agile over the next few months. Now where is that wind when you want it !

 

[Edd Beesley]

good to hear its probably a "calm" blip, but the idea of spending what, £2K on a battery and a 3kw output inverter just to save about £80 a year isn't going to fly !!

Oh but you can get PAID to fill it up as well!

 

[Jeffrey Cooper]

I don't know how many of you know this, but there's a huge engineering project going on here in Lincs, which is joining the electric grid in Denmark to ours (called VikingLink) and for the love of me, not knowing anything about danish wind power or whatever, I can't figure out wether this is good news, or bad with regards to either cost, or green climate progress - I would be very interested to get others ideas and thought on this news !?

 

[SCanfer]

We always cook on electricity at peak times, have solar PV but no battery. Over a year we've never paid more than 9.9p on a bill. It averages out to a nice saving overall, I find.

 

[Johnny Read]

It all balances out. I had to use the oven one day during the peak, and paid 27pence for the privilege of taking nearly 1kWh. But I've put significant kWh into the car for next to nothing.

 

[Lexden]

As someone who has been on Agile; Go and Go Faster over the past 20 months my experience is that there are times when each tariff works out cheaper than the others. Agile was primus inter pares during the first lockdown and through until early September. The cost gap has now narrowed. Octopus has got wise to frequent smart tariff switchers and it has now imposed a minimum term. I am presently on Go which is working out well for me at the moment.

 

[WithEthyl]

If you want to know what's going on with the National Grid and the generation mix then the best site is the one below, further down there's a nice graph of the generation mix for each half hourly period. You'll see that today the output from wind is very low, so almost all gas power stations available to run are running and even most of the coal power stations, coal generation is now more expensive because of the carbon taxes, so it sits behind gas. The available margin today was pretty low so it's likely some peaking plants, like open cycle gas turbines and reciprocating engines will be running, and prices need to reach very high levels to get these running.

Electricity Data Summary | BMRS

Another good graph is the recent and forecasted wind generation:

Wind Forecast Out-turn | BMRS

 

[Chrisb]

How does it allow for your negative pricing billing.

Our bill just shows we used 517kWh and there is just an average of 8.72 p per kWh on it.

How do they work this average out?

We used about 50kWh at negative pricing but seems every kWh is charged at 8.72 p

Or does negative usage just drive the average price down so its not actually free or below zero at all.

Makes no sense otherwise.

 

[Jeffrey Cooper]

I would hope they have a full breakdown of the bill, but then just divide your total by the total units - the bill would be half a mile long if they showed you everything. I get the difficulty in trying to understand your useage patterns and costs though - it's not a easy as I thought it would be. My big issue is that 3 hours at almost 35p/kwh - our baseline seems to be 500wh, so we have a minimum of 52p on top of the cheaper bits per day - but that takes some getting over, and it's impossible to move our tea time past 7pm (being northerner tier 3 types!)

 

[Chrisb]

There is a breakdown of every day and one day (25th Oct) shows 48kWh consumed at -52p but when you tally all the kWh used they are just billing it at 8.72p across the board.

It appears they just show it for billing purposes it looks like price per day added up then that cost is divided by usage to give a theoretical figure.

 

[SueH]

I'd need to look at my own bill, but the across the board figure is I suspect the average they give on the first page(s) of the bill. It's never been as cheap as -52p a unit since I had Agile early this year so I suspect you've misread it in some way. My pdf bill was pages and pages so it's all a bit indigestible.

 

[Chrisb]

No -52p was total days cost for consuming 48kWh when we had the very low negatives when the clocks went back.

 

[Guy9873]

So I’ve just joined octopus , got an ev but only charge it once a week if that. 50kw e2008. I’m struggling to decide whether to go on agile or go tarrifs . suggestions on which one would be best for me? Switching from Scottish power fixed rate.

 

[burnt_crisps2]

So I’ve just joined octopus , got an ev but only charge it once a week if that. 50kw e2008. I’m struggling to decide whether to go on agile or go tarrifs . suggestions on which one would be best for me? Switching from Scottish power fixed rate.

You can do some basic comparisons on various apps and online. See guy lipman, OctoWatchdog and OctopusWatch.
it doesn’t really matter which one you join, it is free to switch.
I suggest you go with Agile and you will halve your bill or more compared to Scottish, even with a once a week ev charge. Just cook as normal between 4 and 7pm and use other heavy usage devices during other parts of the day.

 

[Lexden]

So I’ve just joined octopus , got an ev but only charge it once a week if that. 50kw e2008. I’m struggling to decide whether to go on agile or go tarrifs . suggestions on which one would be best for me? Switching from Scottish power fixed rate.

It is not easy choosing one tariff over another as to maximise the benefits of each tariff the consumer has to change their usage habits. For example, on Go, the dishwasher etc would go on overnight. On Agile, we would make more use of the slow cooker and minimise peak time use. Obviously, I have no idea of your annual consumption but my guess would be that you would be slightly better off on Agile than Go provided you can limit peak usage.

 

[Scrooge]

If you are at home during the day then Agile is an easy decision as you can plan to avoid 4>7PM. The rates are consistently below Go's daytime rate. I've only charged once this week and appliances are timed for the cheapest periods.

 

[BornAgainEcoWarrior]

I don't know how many of you know this, but there's a huge engineering project going on here in Lincs, which is joining the electric grid in Denmark to ours (called VikingLink) and for the love of me, not knowing anything about danish wind power or whatever, I can't figure out wether this is good news, or bad with regards to either cost, or green climate progress - I would be very interested to get others ideas and thought on this news !?

I had asked similar question about the future link to Norway.... I got an informed response, will try and find it.
Viking might mean more wind and cheap electricity when the wind blows. I guess it's also feasible that even if it's windy in Denmark maybe demand elsewhere would mean electricity is exported when Denmark is able to export power on to Germany or rest of Scandinavia.
All speculation (and uninformed speculation at that).
Anyone more informed want to give a steer on likely effects.