Battery Only Tariffs

Hi, Thinking towards April and the lifting of the electricty price cap by a whapping 50% or thereabouts. I'm eager to start thinking about time of use tariffs. Octopus seems the obvious choice BUT their ** Go and Go Faster tariffs are only available to EV owners** and they now enforce that.
Does anyone use a t-o-u tariff that doesn't require you to own an EV ?

Mind you, come April I hope to store most of my electricity from solar PV rather then the grid, but over the winter a t-o-u tariff would be helpful.

I know Octopus Agile is available for Battery only customers but their rates are now ludicrously high.

I’m in a very similar situation to you. Currently paying 14p fixed rate per unit of electricity but that deal ends in March. With the installation of my solar PV and battery in December I’m also looking ahead to a TOU opportunity, as you say, particularly relevant for the winter months. Currently finding it very difficult to decide on what to do, seek out a deal now or do nothing, let my deal expire and look at options in the summer. Also, I don’t currently have an EV but will be looking to get a second hand one at some point.

In terms of energy companies being a bit more rigid on their T’s and C’s, I don’t really blame them. I wouldn’t represent a customer that they will make lots of money from. I’m an average household user (on an annual basis) and the PV should significantly reduce my grid use over the spring/summer and early autumn. As such, I wouldn’t expect there to be many tariffs aimed at me and my circumstances.

kwmc While Octopus say the Go tariffs are for EV owners or EV on order customers only I have a few friends without EV's and switched to Go. Octopus did not ask them. I expect it is a they reserve the right to change your tariff if you are found not to own an EV (I have not read the small print) So still worth trying to join.

On that note here's my referral link ;-) https://share.octopus.energy/snow-brook-829

kwmc I know Octopus Agile is available for Battery only customers but their rates are now ludicrously high

Agile rates are very high, but if you are on Agile you can also be on Agile Outgoing where export rates are also high. I was on Agile until mid September last year (well after the rates went ballistic) and the almost permanent 35p rate wasn't a problem as I was importing a tiny amount of energy (due entirely to inverter lag) and exporting a large amount. This meant that from around late April onwards I was generally being paid for electricity.

This only works if you have solar AND a battery that can supply your needs for the odd day when the sun doesn't generate much (which has to be a very overcast day). My system charged the battery and supplied the house from sunrise to early evening. The battery then supplied the house from early evening to sunrise so no electricity needed to be imported from the grid. I was generally exporting from 10am for the remainder of the day at an Agile Outgoing rate of 15p per unit or more.

Being on Agile Outgoing also means you can take advantage of any spikes in the wholesale prices. Over three days last year my "earnings" were more than £20 as the Outgoing rates were over £1 per unit!

Agile Outgoing does not mean you have to be on Agile for import, only that you can’t be on Go or one of its derivatives. So you could be on Octopus’s SVR, protected by the price cap, and Agile outgoing. If you have solar and import is minimal, that could work well. For the winter, you could try an Economy 7 for import and Agile for export.

I’ve only had my PV and battery a few weeks and am on Go (with EV) on a decent rate until November. If I went onto Agile outgoing for the summer I’d have to give up the good Go rate. It’s a conundrum, to be sure.

BarbaraG I also need to do the math of an EV with Go vs Agile during the Summer. I think I will need to stay on Go or equivalent tariff but not totally sure. During the Summer I would need to add 13kw or less to the car which is fine on weekends and peak of Summer. Shopping trips to tesco too means 30 ish free miles too. What I need is my main job to get a couple of chargers in. Where I work for 6 weeks in the Summer they have 2 chargers for staff and only 1 person uses them and they are free so win win.

I have a fixed rate Import with octopus for another 18months or so and am just going onto the fixed outgoing tariff- not sure about the agile outgoing at the moment. Not sure what my export is going to be long term. This year will be a learning year I think.

THALL

I have occasional access to free charging in city centre car parks, and during the Autumn and Spring terms we go in at least once a week for choir practice and as often as not get a space. It only seems to give about 5kW, but that’s still a free 50 miles once a week.

My daily use in the summer is 6-8kWh without charging, and I can’t imagine there will be many days in the summer months when the PV won’t produce that and more. So I don’t expect to be paying for a huge amount of charging….

BarbaraG Sounds ideal. For me I will not be able to charge between 7 and 5pm at home due to work. Though as my system is East West I should still get a little in the evening, then obvious weekends should top up the car for Monday. It all sounds very promising but I have months to wait before I can put it into practice.

THALL I’ve been thinking about it for several years. We lived in tied accommodation until we retired last summer and moved into our own home. I could finally fulfill at least some of my green dreams.

anglefire The Agile outgoing is always more than the fixed outgoing from my experience. The average Agile outgoing was nearly 20p per kwh for the last 6 months, so it's worth considering, even for minimal export. I averaged 11p per kwh last summer when the wholesale prices were a lot lower and more stable, so will be moving over again in March

@Kevslaa"#p2057

Like you, I will be moving from Go to Agile in March. For me the gain in higher export more than offsets any higher import cost.

I do think our electricity market needs to be reviewed though, as it doesn't seem right that we now generate loads of renewable energy, but the gas prices seem to be what is driving the price higher. I believe that the wholesale price is set by a daily auction, and the price is set by the highest rate that is accepted. Would it not be better to pay the generators at they rate they have submitted?