Good News - Bad News - Battery only owners on Octopus

So I have been along with others trying to get Octopus to accept battery only onto the outgoing tariff. Issue is they seem to be confused what battery only means in terms of certification (none) and agreements (G99 for AIO), which seems to be the wrong way round when making a product offering.

So whilst they seem to have knocked back some of us with a no not an option when they realised there is no MCS Cert, I kinda didn't let it go as they continue to list it as an option on the outgoing tariff sign up page.

Today I got confirmation that I can now join outgoing based on G99 letter...... But the bad news

I have to now do an application with this link

https://octopus.typeform.com/to/Cb3xmZNN

Which comes with a hefty £250 fee.......

So back to email I go to complain but its progress at least but still need to be realistic as battery only means 1-2 spare kWh's a day, means it would take around 5 years to pay the fee.....

What on earth is their justification for the fee? Sort of thing to put out on social media if you don’t get a satisfactory response, Octopus say they are green and innovative and this seems neither

geoffreycoan Octopus say they are green and innovative and this seems neither

I think the Kraken is creaking 😉

I had seen mention of this £250 fee on the Octopus forum. Something to do with an admin fee since they can't just use a pre-existing certification ?

Had an email response saying I wont have to pay £250 after review the G99 being accepted as a 'certificate' as such, but don't actually know if I have to reapply or if they will just move me now.

DreadorUK

Good news, hope it gets sorted soon 🤞😀

DreadorUK Oh that's great news! I went round that loop several times and only ever managed to get to the "we'll add you to a list and then charge you £250" step, which I politely declined as it really doesn't make sense (and I'm hoping to get some solar soon anyway). From what I understand, the £250 is the same as for non-MCS'd solar, but I don't think that makes sense for battery-only.

Then all you need to do is wait months for an export Mpan!!!

Chaz MPAN is included in G99 confirmation

DreadorUK
That might be your Import Mpan they can't get an Export Mpan till the job is done.

It's the Export Mpan you need to get paid!!

DreadorUK Mine wasn't when I got the G99 Connection Confirmation for my AIO/Gateway. I emailed National Grid yesterday to ask for one, so now waiting for a response.

My G99 states - Export Meter Point Administration Number (MPAN): xxxxxxxxxx. You will need to pass this onto your supplier to receive the Smart Export Guarantee payments. Implies Export MPAN to me or am I reading it wrong?

DreadorUK In general a G98/99 submission won't generate an export MPAN. My understanding is that its the energy supply company which applies for an export MPAN and not your installer. Of course the system is such a shambles that all sorts of things probably happen 🙂

Vestas I have heard that SSE (my DNO) are particularly slow. My G99 took ages to go through, but I got mpan very quickly after install - my guess was that they'd already done all the work during the G99 and therefore it was trivial. Whereas when going the other route, the MPAN is held up until the G89 paperwork makes it through the system, which can take weeks. But I'm just speculating wildly, as usual.

It took our DNO ( Scottish and Southern ) four days post install to issue a G99 with an export limit of 7.36kWh. It was a further 2 weeks before Octopus activated my export tariff.

Tenkaykev They always take two weeks - probably distance selling/change of mind regs as its a new contract effectively.

DreadorUK to have a battery without solar and then exporting means you are just buying from Octopus and then selling it back at a higher rate. not sure if they would be happy about this !

deepanshus they basically encourage that with the DFS sessions, if you have a battery it's the only way you can be an effective part of them.

deepanshus

I didn't make them offer it, it's their offering, Im just trying to get them to honour it. They are free to remove it if they wanted and in a way that was my main thrust in the end, to stop people buying a battery and thinking they could export when Octopus seemed pretty clueless on what it takes to be allowed to export battery only. I was as surprised to see them actually accept the argument (yet to still see any fruit from that acceptance though)

I guess the problem in your argument is how is that any worse than someone putting stored solar back in the system at 2 am when they know they wont be using it?

And don't forget in the earlier sessions octopus also benefited from what you saved/exported - they took a cut of the £3.

They've probably spent most of that now in admin, prizes, streak bonuses etc.

DreadorUK i guess the answer is in your comment itself, "putting stored solar back in the system".. you are putting solar into the system and not putting back the energy you stored from the grid !

however, octopus clearly state that for export you need to have solar !

deepanshus

Err so you pay nothing for that energy and pump it back to Octopus when they don't really need and they are paying you 15p for that - and thats better for them than me paying 9p out of that 15p how?

And no you're wrong Im afraid, as you can see they clearly have an option for battery only on Outgoing Octopus.

DreadorUK

yes, that's exactly how export work, they pay you for the energy you provide. Its extra energy for them. For brown export alone, its their energy that you are selling them for higher price, no business will see this as acceptable.

deepanshus to clarify even further both Octopus flux and intelligent flux need Solar AND home battery.

deepanshus unless the company are happy for people to charge up overnight when the grid has spare capacity and export during the evening peak when demand is high.

I'm on intelligent flux, octopus control that and typically half charge the battery overnight from the grid and then charge during the day mostly from solar, but some or all from the grid if it's not sunny enough.

Then they export that stored energy from 4pm.

deepanshus

The main thing you are blatantly missing is that Octopus clearly do see it as acceptable and offer it to their customers as per the above screen shot I posted that shows when signing up for outgoing you can have JUST Storage.

Im really not sure what your moral objection is here, but you seem to be missing that Octopus make more money from me than you in these transactions, and they are here to make money at the end of the day, in addition that 1-2 kWh's Id be pushing back is hardly going to make me rich at 6-12p a day, although I do stand to be able to make a little more on saving sessions by charging before and discharge during, oddly the same tactic used by solar/battery users but again Octopus make more money from me doing that than me not doing it.

I can only assume here that you have some issue thinking Im trying to hack the system somehow Im quite clearly not as Ive demonstrated to you its allowed from their own sign up screens.

The post is about Octopus fully accepting Im on Battery only, but that they internally were not sure how to validate the outgoing, as they seem to have their mind blown that battery only doesn't have a MCS cert. But now they now have acknowledged and cleared up with me that for battery only G99 is acceptable along with MPAN.

Im posting it as I know others have tried and been given the run around so wanted to show some progress to them and hopefully they will also be now able to join now the MCS part has been put to bed.

deepanshus, but it is ok for large commercial systems to be paid in just this way, for it to be profitable and a beneficial asset for the national grid when generation capacity is being stressed. It is up to Octopus and the domestic supply market to determine whether to offer suitable tariffs to support this mode of operation, and it looks like Octopus are.

Here is an example of a commercial BESS.

https://www.power-technology.com/news/largest-uk-battery-energy-storage-facility-comes-online/?cf-view

TagEnergy and Harmony Energy have completed construction on the UK’s largest battery storage facility with a capacity of 99MWh. The $38m (£30m) development has a throughput of 49.5MW and lies near Luton, in the southeast of the UK.

Okay back on subject

Got an email through today saying I don't need to put in a new request, they will work off my initial request has that had all the data and should be live in upto 4 weeks.....

Anyone gets runaround ping me and Ill give you the contacts I got to help... would rather not put names here tbh

So no Bad News now 🙂

DreadorUK
I’ve had exactly this problem with Octopus for an instal completed last May. Keep getting knocked back.