Tomato Energy TOU data issues - myWatts data is 30mins out

Creating a separate thread for this one - a follow-up to this post which was intermingled with other topics - as a heads-up to others thinking about / moving to Tomato Energy.

Brief re-cap:

• I signed up with Tomato Energy because of their market leading EV tariff - cheaper than OG (5p/kWh, 41p standing charge), and for longer (6hrs).
• They direct you to use the myWatts.co.uk dashboard to view your energy usage, bills etc. (myWatts is run by a sister company)
• That dashboard was showing wrong data for the first few days of my contract - instead of "no data" is was unhelpfully showing fake / dummy data instead...

I now have smart data flowing to the myWatts dashboard, replacing the dummy data.

However the data (and the resulting cost used in the calculations based on the time of day tariff) is out by 30 mins - i.e my 05:30 to 06:00 BST consumption i.e. the last slot @5p / kWh is being displayed and the cost calculated as if it occurs at 06:00 to 06:30 BST (05:00 to 05:30 GMT) i.e. @23.16p.

The myWatts dashboard download produces a CSV with

• mprn
• contractId
• gid
• consumptionCost - in pence accurate to 7dp (excluding VAT at 5%)
• consumptionUnits - in kWh accurate to 3dp (so watts)
• settlementTime - TOU slot in UTC i.e. GMT+0

I was able to use this as evidence by comparing against my own data from GE, and the smart meter reported in the Bright app (which graphs and tabulates kWh per 30mins).

Tomato acknowledged there must be a bug with myWatts over the phone - I don't yet have a confirmation in writing or when a fix will be in place. They have assured me that I will be billed correctly.

Will update once I've heard back / it's fixed - just wanted to save any others falling down the same rabbit hole...

Signed up to move over in a few days so will keep an eye out

No brainer for me as I don't have solar and pretty much run the house on AIO so 7p to 5p plus car charging is fine in the 6 hours.

Wont be missing tied in charging which I didn't make use of to prevent battery drain.

Thanks for sharing this. I am also affected by this. Consumption chart shows zero usage, but CSV data reveals, that billing period previous day at 00:00 charges me for usage 00:00 to 00:30 from the next day! Which is when battery is charging, as well as other home appliances. I will be contacting them right away to get this fixed.

So I called them, got connected right away. They are aware of this issue, it is only a visual problem.
Their billing system is correctly generating invoices. I have not verified that yet, as I am still waiting for my first bill. I joined TE in early November.
MyWatts is showing correct data on the chart, and incorrect data in CSV file (I can confirm both). I opened a formal complaint anyway, to get track of the progress.

Just something to bear in mind for those on tomato: https://elexonexternal.newsweaver.com/924j6pkkru/10hqvmj67ef?lang=en&a=6&p=10759541&t=814254

It's not a given that it'll all come crashing down but it also not a great thing to be having happen to you as a supplier either. Accurate data is a bit of a core principle of the market.

hoggy Some serious internal technical language in the linked circular https://elexonexternal.newsweaver.com/924j6pkkru/olf9t7tcekz1b6kl52yj6v?email=true&lang=en&a=6&p=10705006&t=536979

Not clear what the impact of this naming and shaming is. I assume there is some sort of sanction and escalation over time and is it possible that with repeated ‘strikes’ Tomato could get excluded from these kind of energy market trading things which would be seriously limiting for them as a business?

There’s always the Ofgem SOLR transfer process so customers are protected, and I’ve been through those a few times by choosing smaller electricity suppliers that have failed.

Maybe Tomato could subcontract this energy settlement process to another electricity suppliers for them, like Octopus (joke)

They were "put on report" for not hitting the required half hourly data accuracy target (see: https://www.elexon.co.uk/article/public-notification-of-tomato-energy-limiteds-lack-of-progress-against-its-efr-milestones/ ) but as you can see it has had little impact.

hoggy Thanks for these links. They don't make for pretty reading.
Personally, I wouldn't touch these guys. I suspect that their days are numbered.

Rob

hoggy I'm not surprised.

If they go bust then the directors should be personally prosecuted. We've had enough cowboys (bulb etc) grabbing the money and running while the general population picks up the bill when the company goes bankrupt.

bRhFDKtjRMK9 I'm considering a switch to TE but quite a lot of negative comments about customer service and billing. Are they reading your meter OK? do you get regular bills and are they correct?
I'm well aware that the dissatisfied customers make the most noise on review sites...

downfield

Im with them - readings look fine for me with myWatts starts when I charge finishes same, Ive yet to have a bill so nothing to go on and no contact with customer service to have any view on that but haven't needed to.

Bottom line for me with estimates I'm on 5.5p average for the month Im happy

downfield Yes, meter reading is okay. MyWatts was only a visual issue, probably still is, but I have not checked it since January, because along with the bill, they send me half-hourly numbers for the entire month. I've checked it out with a spreadsheet, and everything was billed 100% correct as it should be. I am happily using them while it lasts. No one else can give me 4.7p at night time. No idea if they will go bust or not.

Ditto here. The bills look right and it’s cheaper than anything else out there for me. Customer service appears non existent (I emailed them about export tariffs but never heard back so will stay with OE for now). Now it’s setup correctly with data flowing from smart meter, I don’t need anything from them. I pay by DD just in case something goes awry and I need to claim under the DD guarantee.

Been with them from the start, and to be honest everything seems good

I'm on the Tomato Lifestyle Fixed TP October 2024-V1-Tariff-ED1E

A lot cheaper for my home, as i was with Octopus energy before

Standing charge is 23p per day cheaper, Now its 43p this alone saves me £7 a month ( Crazy right)

1AM till 6AM = 5p

9:30AM till 11:30AM = 14p

8:30PM till 10:30PM = 14p

Rest of the time its 24p

Bills have been cut about 70%, if this company does go bust i'l just move back to Octopus energy,

No problems really,

Have you guys seem a saving like mine since you moved over ?

lifco

Im pretty much living off the 5p rate as my AIO covers all day use here apart from the odd few hours which nicely falls into the 14p rate.

Not making the same savings as you as I went from 7p to 5p but its not far of 30% off with those odd slips into 14p

[unknown] Thanks! I've just signed up - same tariff as you.

lifco Thanks! I've just signed up - same tariff as you.

downfield Oh right cool, i'm sure your bills will drop a good amount for sure

Same here, sick to death of paying around 25p ish over the past few months. So taking the plunge with Tomato lifestyle at 5p for a great charge keeps overnight. My 9kwh battery will see me though the rest of the day and if course we may get some sun in the coming months 🤣

So far so good, did all the documents and due to formally switch over tomorrow the 21st 👍
Just did the meter reading also.

Will see if anything happens tomorrow 👍

Iguana
Am I correct in thinking that you can't export to Tomato? If so, are you keeping an export contract with Octopus?

PianSom

That's correct mate, you can only export with them, if you had solar fitted by them

Im still with Octopus for export and also my gas, Which is fine for me because the money i earn vir export pays my gas bill

Roll on summer

lifco Im still with Octopus for export

You should be getting dropped down to the SEG outgoing tariff if you don’t have electricity import with octopus. 4p or something like that.

🥴

geoffreycoan yes i was told mate, hoping to move export to Scottish Power as they seem to paid quite well

Tomato took both my Import and Export MPANs

Im not exporting yet, but will be come April time.
Not yet had a bill either since Nov. Despite data in MyWatts, which seems to have the odd gap in it

TheDragon (GivEnergy) I assume you use home assistant. Are you missing any API type stuff post move? Or is everything local monitoring?

I guess pricing is easier if it's just set prices for set hours.

I couldn't imagine leaving octopus and loosing the bottlecapdave integration!

TX200 Tomato has zero in the way of APIs.
The charge times are set, so i just program them in.
Using the day dip in the morning for charging the wife's PHEV for the school pickup in the afternoon.
If the PV is low and the temp is low, i chuck charge in the battery too using HA automation i wrote.

It works well and everything just works.

lifco hoping to move export to Scottish Power as they seem to paid quite well

Last time I looked, Scottish Power were the best SEG export payer (8p??).

From what I have heard they are quite strict about brown export electricity and they ask for a schematic of your installation. Quite what for I don’t know

TheDragon (GivEnergy) Shhh keep quiet 🙂 Im hoping they don't notice, same boat I had two days of no readings in November then fine since then no bill either.

DreadorUK i have 3 days in Dec missing data, i think thats the issue for me.
That has today appeared, so i think they're on to me

[unknown] It's 12p per KW so it says on there website

I'l signup tomorrow see what they say, even though not much solar at moment lol

No news yet, supposed to have moved today, but no confirmation from either tomato or octopus.

Sent them a message, will see if I get any reply, or perhaps will kick in overnight.

Iguana myWatts page had me moved but no data for a few days then it started populating - Was all pretty seamless for me got my date it happened.

[unknown] I never got a confirmation on the day,

but i just logged into the watts portal page and my stats where updated with usage

Thanks both, octopus has recorded me for usage Friday, so assuming that it didn't roll over, will see what happens over the next few days 👍

Getting excited now, emails from octopus and Tomato today, confirming the change over from tomorrow 👍

TheDragon (GivEnergy) Kiss o death Dragon - I have my bills as well

Quick update, have definitely moved, but must be 5+ weeks now and no usage data being reported at all, rang them today and phone was answered straight away, they've raised a case for me.
I can see there's a meter reading listed on the 20th March, which must be automated as I never sent them one, just no usage reports available.