Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

[chrcoluk]

No they don't fix them anymore afaik.

No exit fees anyway, so within reason you can generally switch about.

Interesting they effectively uncapped then, because as soon as average cost goes up they now keep raising the cap.

But yeah can exit quickly if things go bad.

 

[Sinbad2000]

Interesting they effectively uncapped then, because as soon as average cost goes up they now keep raising the cap.

But yeah can exit quickly if things go bad.

They are capped - agile is capped at £1/kwh. Not sure what the gas tracker is capped at...

 

[Sinbad2000]

Interesting you dont have the "fixed until ..." on those tariffs. I wonder if Octopus now dont fix the cap for 12 months on these new tariffs.

As mentioned, the cap isn't particularly relevant as it's pretty high. These aren't fixed tariffs, so no reason to have "fixed until" They change all the time.

 

[HungryHippos]

I made a Home Assistant automation to email me the price each day after midnight

Saves me checking it manually!

 

[chrcoluk]

I made a Home Assistant automation to email me the price each day after midnight

Saves me checking it manually!

How easy is that to do? I dont need it now, but next summer I will likely be going to the new tracker so would love something like that.

 

[HungryHippos]

How easy is that to do? I dont need it now, but next summer I will likely be going to the new tracker so would love something like that.

You need Home Assistant running first of all on something. I run mine in a docker container on my Synology NAS.

After that you need to add Octopus integration and get your API keys from Octopus site so it can pull down your tariff data.

For the email to be sent I had to add a OAUTH key for my gmail so it can send emails unattended as me.

All the moving parts not that hard, but those are the 3 requirements. Once all in place I added an automation that triggers daily, reads the sensor for the price, and then uses it in an email I send to me

 

[Sinbad2000]

You need Home Assistant running first of all on something. I run mine in a docker container on my Synology NAS.

After that you need to add Octopus integration and get your API keys from Octopus site so it can pull down your tariff data.

For the email to be sent I had to add a OAUTH key for my gmail so it can send emails unattended as me.

All the moving parts not that hard, but those are the 3 requirements. Once all in place I added an automation that triggers daily, reads the sensor for the price, and then uses it in an email I send to me

I do sorta-similar, still busy setting it up, but with an old android phone in kiosk mode showing a dashboard with a graph of agile prices, and will be adding the daily gas tracker price as well

 

[Firestar_3x]

No, Flexible Octopus is their SVR product.
The gas tracker is called Octopus Tracker.

Annoyingly they will only offer me the "Flexible Octopus" tariff online, even though the tariff I want is available for my postcode.

Take it this is a phone them up job, unless I'm missing something online?

 

[HungryHippos]

I do sorta-similar, still busy setting it up, but with an old android phone in kiosk mode showing a dashboard with a graph of agile prices, and will be adding the daily gas tracker price as well

Yeah I wanted a way of it sending the data to me rather than having to manually check it, but parts 1 and 2 of mine above cover that really, and then just edit dash

 

[HungryHippos]

Annoyingly they will only offer me the "Flexible Octopus" tariff online, even though the tariff I want is available for my postcode.

Take it this is a phone them up job, unless I'm missing something online?

Just switch initially to the flexible SVR one, when switch complete, they can flip you over to the tracker same day.

Make it clear in the calls or w/e you want the tracker ultimately in case they try and pull it out from under you, but the switch is pretty quick and they don't seem to be stopping people going onto it.

 

[Sinbad2000]

Annoyingly they will only offer me the "Flexible Octopus" tariff online, even though the tariff I want is available for my postcode.

Take it this is a phone them up job, unless I'm missing something online?

Sign up for the flexible, then tweet them asking them to move you to tracker.

 

[Curlyriff]

You just need to phone up/tweet to get on Tracker

 

[Sinbad2000]

Yeah I wanted a way of it sending the data to me rather than having to manually check it, but parts 1 and 2 of mine above cover that really, and then just edit dash

Indeed. My wife never reads emails though This is to put on display in the kitchen above the dishwasher and washing machine so she can see at a glance how long to delay them for

 

[Richie]

How easy is that to do?

You need Home Assistant running first of all on something. I run mine in a docker container on my Synology NAS.

After that you need to add Octopus integration and get your API keys from Octopus site so it can pull down your tariff data.

For the email to be sent I had to add a OAUTH key for my gmail so it can send emails unattended as me.

All the moving parts not that hard, but those are the 3 requirements. Once all in place I added an automation that triggers daily, reads the sensor for the price, and then uses it in an email I send to me

So not very easy at all

 

[HungryHippos]

So not very easy at all

I never said it was easy, probably the opposite!

 

[Firestar_3x]

Sign up for the flexible, then tweet them asking them to move you to tracker.

Switched online, they are going to bump me to the tracker on the 8th.

 

[chrcoluk]

Costs might go up temporarily if weather predictions right for us been smack under high pressure soon (little to no wind).

I will probably setup what hippo said just to make sure I have it working, I do aprreciate the help @HungryHippos

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Latest cornwall insights price predictions, no real change compared to current other than a blip up in Q2. (when government support reduced)

Our latest price cap forecasts for a typical household:
Q2 23 (Apr-Jun): £3,338
Q3 23 (Jul-Sept): £2,361
Q4 23 (Oct-Dec): £2,389

2023 Standing Charge and Unit Costs forecasts:
Q2 SC£/day) Elec - 0.37, Gas - 0.31 UC: (p/kWh) Elec - 54.14, Gas – 12.65
Q3 SC (£/day): Elec - 0.37, Gas - 0.31 UC (p/kWh): Elec – 35.18, Gas – 9.10
Q4 SC (£/day): Elec - 0.38, Gas - 0.32 UC (p/kWh): Elec – 36.05, Gas – 9.07

 

[jpaul]

guardian report- 200MW energy saving were a drop in the ocean, when they were firing up gas turbines at £6000/MWh to meet shortfalls.

Last month National Grid paid a record £27m on a single day to get power stations to crank up supply at short notice, including £6,000 a MWh to fire up Rye House power station in Hertfordshire.
...
Prices paid for gas-powered electricity this winter are unprecedented. The average offer price for “balancing actions” – to align supply and demand – between the start of September and early January was £287 a MWh. Data from Elexon, which oversees the market, shows Rye House submitted the 20 highest winter bids – between £5,000 and £6,000 a MWh – for varying volumes of power on 12 December, setting new records. That day, VPI earned more than £11m, while InterGen received an estimated £12.6m from Coryton, according to figures from the market data platform EnAppSys.

Rye is 700MWh apparently.

 

[silversurfer]

Makes sense, Rye whiskey isnt cheap stuff; shame we cant find anything else less tasty to burn

Looking like Octopus could be good.

Question - I work home 5 days a week, wife 2 days. our 2022 Elec usage was 5700Kwh. That seems excessive. Thoughts?

Its not excessive but all the details are missing like any other energy and how much energy might be lost.