Smart Tariff logic failure on Tue 16th Sep

Hi all,

My battery and inverter uses the GivEnergy Smart Tariff configuration where it reads the Octopus API to determine when to charge and discharge. In Tuesday evening at 23:30 GivEnergy sent the command to disable overnight charging of the battery. The Octopus energy API was correctly showing the low overnight tariff rate that should have triggered a charging cycle. The GE portal also correctly reflected the API data from Octopus. It is a mystery why GE logic decided to remove the charging cycle for that night and it left me with a completely empty battery on an almost zero solar day.

Did anyone else experience this problem on this evening?

Last night it did correctly configure the charge cycle. I have logged a ticket using the infamous WhatsApp support system but have not had any response so far.

GeoffAlder may I ask which tariff you're on?

DD Intelligent Octopus Go

GeoffAlder To a first approximation, that has a straightforward fixed off-peak period, so I wonder what the smart tariff feature offers you - does it take into account the solar forecast for the next day, or anything like that? And even if it's a good solar day, assuming you've got your export tariff set up, wouldn't you want to fully charge battery every night ? In which case, just leaving a timed charge for 11:30 to 5:30 every night ought to suffice.

One added-value it could give you would be to inhibit battery discharge, or even actively charge, during any bonus car-charging slots. (But I'm rather wary of automating such additional charging, given how often the scheduled slots move around - at the moment, my own automation inhibits discharge only when it detects that the car is actually charging.)

I used to use Octo R&D scheduler, but go fed up with:-
Octo not sending the commands
GivEnergy not receiving the commands
GivEnenergy then not sending the commends to my inverter
Commands getting lost in the internet "ether"

In the end I went to Home Assistant and Predbat. All on my Pi on my network.

DD It would be nice to embrace a future where GE would take the tariff information and do the right thing dynamically, even when you change tariff or when there are 'free' electricity periods, or when the EV charging slots are in use. Unfortunately it is doing none of these and if it also fails to sends commands or sends incorrect commands then a static config is certainly the way to go. That coupled with limited telemetry or failure notices from GE to diagnose and slow to respond support, they are not really ready to offer it as a service.

SteveCook I hear you. I also use home assistant but I am trying to simplify the implementation of such systems as not many would be willing to take on HASS and Predbat in order to get better utilisation of the assets they have invested in.

GeoffAlder
Agreed, but not sure that GivEnergy will take that on

SteveCook Agreed, but not sure that GivEnergy will take that on

Given the many and varied portal "hiccups" caused by programmers working on live production systems, I'm not sure I'd want (or trust) them to. They get it wrong during a peak period like the ones we had last year on Agile (99.99p/kWh) and its going to get expensive VERY fast indeed.

I discovered that there's a new feature on Smart Tariff and the old system is now listed as Smart Tariff Legacy. The issue that you've experienced happened to me 2 nights running, although my battery did charge up overnight last night. The system was working fine until I noticed the new feature! I thinknit probably works with Octopus Agile dynamic pricing, but nit with Intelligent Octopus Go which I'm also on. Just tried out WhatsApp, but all agents busy, Go figure, and seems to be an American connection on WhatsApp?

GeoffAlder
Seems to be a way to get Predbat now without doing it yoursefl
https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/5411-second-year-live-on-predbat/1517

https://predbat.com/

No connection to me, other than I have HA on my PI and use Predbat

SteveCook is Trefor aware of that? His name does seem suspiciously absent in the "about us" section?

hoggy
The company running this, Predictive Cloud Ltd, dont have him listed as a director or officer either.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/16387291/officers

Dandre Yes I noticed the USA WhatsApp number. They are probably using US CRM software that provide the WhatsApp interface. Not great as data is not going to be hosted in EU for GDPR.

hoggy
Trefor has commented on Facebook that he has given a license to the new venture. And the implication of some comments by the directors is that they have his full support.

It's good they have his support. I'm not sure I see how it's a money making venture given the incremental benefit predbat offers and the fact they want £10 a month as an intro price. On top of that - it's limited to givenergy and octopus users.

But good luck to them!