Octopus Tracker. New tariffs for new customers

Octopus have released a new tracker tariff that new customers will use going forward.

The new tariff is more expensive than the old tariff (about 2.3p/kWh more for electricity), but fortunately any existing customers will remain on the old tariff. The new tariff still offers great savings vs standard rates so is well worth considering.

If you'd like to read more information, Octopus have a blog detailing the changes - https://octopus.energy/tracker-faqs/.

Average (old) tracker rates since 1st Jan 2023 are around:
Elec: 21p
Gas: 6p
(Maybe less?)

Today's Octopus (old) Tracker rates in Southern area were:
11/12/23 -
Elec: 18.22p/kWh,
Gas: 4.95p/kWh

Standard Octopus rates are:
Elec: 27.35p/kWh,
Gas: 6.88p/kWh

Both old and new Trackers offer huge savings vs standard rates and so will still be good on the new Tracker rates too.
Tracker rates have not gone above standard rates at all on any day in 2023.
Business electricity tariffs have fallen off a cliff during the year.

For anyone that's been forced to sign up for excessively high fixed term contracts over last year it may be worth checking terms & conditions to break the contract early. Even if there is a penalty it may be worth taking?

If you're with Octopus already you can switch by contacting them by email, twitter etc

If you're not with Octopus it's worth considering joining. If you initially join using their standard tariff you can then immediately request a change to tracker by contacting them.

Terms & conditions look worse than they are in reality. If for any reason you don't like tracker or find a fixed contract you prefer you can switch back to standard rates on one day notice so its no big commitment - T&C say it can take up to 2 weeks to process but I believe is typically quicker.

Those on old Octopus Tracker will be moved to the new Tracker on 15th Feb 2024... will be a fixed 12 month term.. approx 2.3p more expensive than old tracker. Still a great deal and I'll stick with it

I had an email about being moved to the new Agile tariff on that date as well.

The new agile is the same day rates, just a slightly higher standing charge, so I'm fine with that.

I have been keeping an eye on Tracker, when I compare it to Agile, the old Tracker November 22 is around the same as the Agile price, but taken over a month or so its usually slightly cheaper.
e.g. last week for me Tracker '22 was £6 more expensive than my agile consumption, over the last month it was £1.50 less.

But the tracker December 23 is definitely worse. Last week for example it would have been £16 more expensive than Agile for me, and over the last month £58 more expensive.
There'd be a % improvement from not charging and discharging the battery and suffering conversion losses, but if you have the battery automation then I don't think Tracker is now a good deal whereas it was before.

Of course for people on SVT then all the above from Tim Adams is true, its a simple 'just forget' tariff. There is risk the rates could spike but its probably low risk.

geoffreycoan are the agile standing charges changing? The letter says they are but then mine don’t seem to… Is it a region thing?

naltsta just looked at the letter and my standing charge IS increasing by just under 5p a day, but my charge is a LOT cheaper than yours so maybe it is a regional thing that they are levelling out some of the regions and feel you're paying enough already

I'm in Eastern region (East Anglia)

geoffreycoan I feel I am too!

Following changes to Tracker tariff increasing rate by approx 2.3p kwh
@edwebdeveloper has published a tool to compare how much more you pay on Tracker from 15th Feb vs old Tracker using recent data:
octopriceuk.app/compareTracker

May help decisions on potential switch Agile or other Octopus tariffs etc