Axle Energy Customers get GE Premium Paid For

If, this is accurate, it seems that anyone who signs up to Axle energy will get their GE Premium subscription paid for.

From Gary Does Solar

Just seen :-)

Just looked on my axle setting page and there’s a link to re authenticate the device anyone tried this or do we wait for confirmation from axle/GivEnergy first?

Just completed it. Painless and I'm now premium

Will give it a try later👍🏻

I get the same, although I have no way of signing up, or I can’t see how to anyway… no email nothing

Domo yes, same, just a red popup saying, this feature needs premium subscription but nowhere it says how to get one. Not that i am going to get it, but it would be helpful for those who are willing.

You sign up by visiting the portal.

adskankster thanks for letting me know. 👍🏻

I’ve just gone onto the dashboard and found that the power graph is only available on premium. Naively I thought that came under monitoring and live data. So the only thing we get on free is instantaneous (ie every 5 mins!) values. Not a lot of use for anyone and not what I understood by monitoring.
But yes join axle and you get it all for free.

strange, so now it seems the dashboard is pretty much useless without the premium subscription.

this feels like cheating, i was expecting to have at least a READ ONLY view, not what they have now,

Yea, it really feels like they’ve played fast and loose with what they define as “free local access”.

If anyone wants to sign up to Axle, please use the following link.

It belongs to Paul Landregan:

https://vpp.axle.energy/landing/grid?ref=R-RKCYCFLW

Can't even try and see if a register has bugged out, their app wont work on my phone (too old) and now this, officially lost all official access any any way to diagnose issues.

You have to replace the existing app with a new version to enable the new features (if that is what they are)

Just reinstalled the app logged out of portal re authenticated on axle all good I had access to the premium tier now after about an hour it’s all gone and I now have a message to either buy the premium or join axle anyone else found this out or a solution I have emailed giv support but who knows how long that will take

ADO

Exactly the same for me.
Luckily I have Rubikubes inverter monitor so I can check stuff out!

Tried signing up to Axle, but I am on Octo Agile import and export and Axle does not list those as tariffs that I can select to progress with the sign up.
Doh.....

Coys68
At least I’m not alone

ADO
Support problem submitted to Axle

Just seen on the portal that the known issues has flagged up several issues today with the release of premium including the axle issue not giving you premium access as promised

SteveCook I'm also on those two tariffs and was able to select them. They're further down the list, not with the other Octopus ones. They're quite well hidden, tbh.

What are the caveats to linking with axle?

adskankster
Thanks
I had to set my laptop screen zoom to 75% for the dropdowns to go far enough to be able to see Agile
Logged out of portal and logged back in and got full premium function

I signed up to Axle, but none of my dashboards are working. Sigh.

Hopefully this is just teething issues.

Is the “free” premium ge account actually free or is it considered free because you still pay £4.99/m and that is offset from the “guaranteed” £10/m from Axle. So your Axle benefit is then £5/m ?

Maxwell Is the “free” premium ge account actually free or is it considered free because you still pay £4.99/m and that is offset from the “guaranteed” £10/m from Axle. So your Axle benefit is then £5/m ?

If you subscribe to Axle then you get the GivEnergy premium service for free. There is no reduction in the Axle payouts. Nowhere does it suggest that there is such a reduction.

Note that the £1/kWh and £10 per month minimum payout is for the Axle Beta service, it could well vary when Axle come out of Beta, but what it varies to, no announcements.

Well i had premium service for a few hours, but now it has gone........ Logged out of GivEnergy app and portal and logged back in, but premium has gone.....
Doh.......

geoffreycoan If Axle is a route that you want to take you might ant to check out a YouTube by Gary does.
Seems like a route with a £25 advantage

norse I used to be signed up to Axle but they were very flakey about resetting my inverter to previous settings after an event. After a few weeks with no issues, I stopped watching quite so closely, then discovered over a week later that my battery had been on 0% all that time. This wiped out all my earnings.

Add with anything like this, I'll be manually checking to be on the safe side, as I'm sure they will have some issues and it's still a 'Beta' solution.

The only annoying thing so far, is that every time you go the your axle site, you have to request a link, no email and password login, but only a minor annoyance.

Already signed up with axel, logged on all ok and premium given and all working as it always has done, but today its gone back to standard tier and in axel its saying all joined up to premium ? logged off and on again but no different

https://givenergy.cloud/known-issues

paulwindy
Paul.
Same problem as me.
My axle account shows I should get GivEnergy premium.
I have emailed axle

Iguana I think you can reuse the link they send. So copy that email link into a shortcut or add it as a favourite.

SteveCook Hi Steve i also have emailed Axle, i have re authorized via axle again and its worked again

paulwindy
Paul
Thanks. How does one reauthorize via axle?
Regards
Steve

I linked my account yesterday to get premium then it disappeared and reverted to standard but looks like at 5.20am this morning it was reactivated and everything is OK. I.e. Axle up and running with free premium tier. PS to me Axle is a no brainer - I've earned £75 so far with no issues

Perhaps it's just me that worries about these things, but reading Axel's Ts&Cs and their Privacy Policy put me off signing up. Axel have the right to use and share your personal contact information, your personal usage data and, if you have an EV they sell data related to your weight and journeys that you take. Personally, I don't want my personal data shared with a company's associates when you have no idea who they are or what they intend to do with it. So, no thank you Axel.
All I would urge is that people who are keen to get their £4.99 subscription paid read both documents before committing to a great amount of data being shared to anonymous and unaccountable organisations.

i am not keen on the "Connect via the cloud servers" i like to view my import costs vs Export costs. i hope they allow you to tap on the light bulb icon to drill down and view this.

ricko TBH they don't need to connect via cloud. If you look in other threads you can see that they are quite happy once you have signed up for you to export for the slot they pay you whether they control your inverter or not. If you use Predbat this is incorporated into the software.

ricko i like to view my import costs vs Export costs.

If you're with Octopus, their app is pretty good for that.

I've given my husband his own 'delegated user' account but this does not seem to be giving him access to the app back, even though I have subscribed to Axel. Anyone found a solution to this other than sharing the main account?

I am considering signing up to Axle. Their website bot help is actually very good at answering most questions but I posed a couple that made it suggest I emailed human support to answer. I sent the email 5 days ago and chased after 3 days, but still haven't had a response.

This is a red flag for me - anyone else experienced poor support?

ChrisJW I received an email stating they're a bit snowed under with the response to the GE offer so please give them time to respond to queries.

"Finally, it's been a brilliant week! So many of you have joined that our support team is working through a bigger-than-usual inbox. Replies may take a little longer for now, and we really appreciate your patience."

chickenlegs For EVs, it does list collected data as vehicle make/model/trim, registration/licence, VIN, battery size, charging capability, state of charge, location, connected/charging status, service mode, whether the vehicle is stationary, and current/desired temperature. It also lists “details of how much energy used to charge your electric vehicle, and when this charging happened”. But I searched the policy text for “weight” and “journey” and found no matches. So I would not describe the current policy as saying Axle collects or sells EV weight and journey data.

One point worth highlighting - they do say anonymised [device] location data may be obfuscated to a larger area such as a neighbourhood or within 100m. However, in dense areas, 100m may be acceptable - in sparse areas, that could still be quite identifying. Linking that with collection of home consumption and production data can be more sensitive because it reveals household energy behaviour which can inform occupancy.

Axle’s Events Only model (all I would use it for) is probably less intrusive operationally than a fully optimised battery tariff, but I guess the privacy policy does still need to allow enough data sharing to prove eligibility, dispatch events and settle rewards. Some reassurance may be taken from Axle being UK-registered. They set out GDPR rights: access, correction, erasure, objection, restriction, portability and withdrawal of consent. Forwarding sensitive data to 3rd parties operating outside of it's stated purpose (i.e. without a lawful basis) would be a major commercial and regulatory risk for Axle.

On balance, I think I would still go for it.

thevilla ok thanks - that's encouraging.

Does anyone know if you lose any SEG payments you're getting from your supplier once you sign up to Axel?

Domo you don't lose them - they are in addition to your regular export tariff.

Ok signed up, I did pay for the subscription on day one so hopefull they will cancel that and refund.

ChrisJW Some reassurance may be taken from Axle being UK-registered.

They look very much like they're USA-owned now. There was funding/new share issues pretty much as soon as GE Ltd went bust, and two new directors arrived - both USA citizens (resident in the USA) who appear to now have majority share control of Axle.

So USA-controlled really if we're talking about data.

Vestas ah ok interesting - their 'current' privacy policy dated 27 October 2023 says 'Axle Energy Limited is registered in England under company number 14633671' - either way, I'd assume they still have to comply with gdpr for uk based subscribers.

Company number 14633671 active directors:
BACH, Karl Sebastian - German - UK resident - appointed 2023
DE BERKER, Archy Otto - British - UK resident - appointed 2023
LANCASTER, Tyler William - American - US resident appointed April 2026
LOGINOV, Evgeny - American - UK resident appointed April 2026

ChrisJW If the USA directors control more than 50% of the company shares then its considered a USA controlled company (or similar wording) in terms of the CLOUD Act and as such subject to USA law in terms of data/control.

Axle are still a UK registered company. Still the same services.

The tl;dr of that is Axle data won't be covered properly by GDPR going forward as law in the USA seems to be largely disregarded these days so it seems safe to assume all data is largely available there, assuming you support the "right people".

I'd be more bothered about another USA controlled UK company siphoning money out of the UK for doing pretty much bugger all, but that's probably just me....

Vestas mmmm that last point hits the spot - but then again, I have a solar panel and battery system more to save money (once paid off) than to save the planet, so I guess I wont be shedding a tear about saving more money with Axle 😉

ChrisJW Absolutely but bear in mind the "Virtual Power Plant" (VPP) market in the UK is (IMHO) another financial mess which will end up costing taxpayers loads - like bulb. The rules appear to have been written by children and it'll all come crashing down as its inevitably exploited by people like the chancers who setup bulb. That seems the way of the UK, rinse repeat ad nauseum.

Fill your boots while it lasts though, may as well keep some of the cash in the UK 🙂

Took the plunge and just signed up with Axle - I can confirm I also have GivEnergy premium access in app and browser (for free).

The sign-up process was very easy and the resulting account pages are simple and clear. One point of concern was a warning that they will attempt to revert your battery to previous settings after each event but suggest you check it worked! You can connect your Axle account to Home Assistant to view grid events and optimise your event participation if you wish.

Let's see how it all goes and how long the offers last...

I have signed up with Axle, had the premium working as it should, and now I'm being told I need to subscribe, so can't access anything.

I am the second user on my account, (my wife is the primary user) but it still allowed me to set up the subscription ok... what do I do now, I can't see graphs or monitor anything.

JK
Go into Axle.
Go to settings
Go to troubleshooting
Go to reconnect device and when you go back to GivEnergy portal it should show you are a premium account

JK I am a second user on a friends system and even though both they and I are premium the second account gives that prompt. I wasnt that bothered but I think GE support is your best route for support

ChrisJW One point of concern was a warning that they will attempt to revert your battery to previous settings after each event but suggest you check it worked!

Been with them since February, 8 events and 3 without Eco being reset. I now check every time!

My second user accounts are now working so it looks like GE fixed it without a prompt from me!

To all the intrepid pioneers here who have taken that leap to sign up with Axle, please do continue to share your experience going forward! It's much appreciated.

I'm still trying to understand:

1. how well (or not) Axle works alongside my Intelligent Octopus Go tariff?
2. in the slightly longer term if Axle's using my GE-AIO would accelerate hardware degredation despite their claims it doesn't? I reckon that like most other owners I'd very much like to keep the now warranty-less system running for its intended 12-year product lifespan.
3. As a company, is Axle more like Octopus Energy (appears quite customer centric, competitive and reliable for the 10 years I've been with them) or another GE (total letdown)?

o1975 Again, you are not permitted to sign up to services like Axle if you are on an Octopus Intelligent tariff.

Try reading the T&Cs you signed up to!

Vestas

I believe Octopus have said yes you can...

wrighar Does anyone have a statement to that effect from Octopus in writing?

Vestas Thank you. T&Cs aren't written for most of us normal humans. It's indigestible.

wrighar Is this like EON Drive where someone "official" said something on a forum* some years back about not needing an EV if you had a battery?

*the T&Cs of using said forums essentially stating nothing said by EON staff on the forums changes the T&Cs of tariffs

Octopus FAQs

IMHO Axle Energy is not a flexibility service

Obsevatory They think they are and your opinion doesn't matter to Octopus.

Vestas Again, you are not permitted to sign up to services like Axle if you are on an Octopus Intelligent tariff.

Sounds like Octopus are planning their own version of this for GE battery owners... but possibly only the fully-managed variant, rather then events-only ?

DD I doubt it. Octopus (and all other suppliers) want exclusive use of your "low-carbon assets" and make no secret of it. Companies like Axle are doomed in the long run once Octopus et al extend their control/visibility past the smart meter.

I am now thinking of switching to Octopus Charge pack at £12 monthly as they are my energy supplier - leaving AXLE presumably cancels my Givenergy app access - is there an alternative? I have signed up to Monitor foe Givenergy inverter and whilst good for real time doesn't seem to provide history - needs to be connected to the inverter all the time to get data (holidays?) I want to see how much solar I generated each month. Ideas?

Buy a cheap Tablet and leave it running 24/7 ?

If you have TIGO optimisers that'll give you solar generation history

philipdawsonladds I think Charge Pack also covers the GE subscription ?

Does the old standard Givenergy app provide this data from the inverter? I can see it using the premium version.