Logging OVO Actuals Data and Octopus Agile Half-hourly Prices

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> Requested cut-over to Agile tariff.  Confirmation of the switch by email return.

 

Can I ask - you did the cut-over via the website or via email request? I'm finding the email responses to be inconsistent and complete gibberish.

 

p.s. thanks for putting the code up.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Alan Ambrose

[TerryE]

@Alan Ambrose Alan, the human-in-the-loop responses seem to take about 5 working days, and are a bit hit and miss, ATM.  For example, I have asked for an account on the Octopus forum and am still waiting on a reply.    In this case, I logged onto my Octopus Account and navigated to the request Agile form, and submitted a request to switch there. I got an "Oops something went wrong response, but also an automated email which included a custom link asking me to read and accept the Agile T&Cs which I then did.  I then got the confirmation of the switch by return -- but note that I already have an Agile-supported smart meter (in my case a Secure Liberty 100 SMETS1 meter that OVO had already done the necessary firmware upgrade to).

Edited November 9, 2023 by TerryE

[TerryE]

This comparison might be useful:

[TerryE]

I've collected half-hourly meter readings from OVO since we had our smart meter fitted in Jan 2018.  OVO stopped recording these on the 6th but Octopus only started on the 8th, so it looks like I am going to have to backfill the lost data somehow at some point if I want a complete bumpless data set.  😱  More to the point, I now need to expedite my new algo though TBH even my old "do as much as  possible 0-7AM" will still be over 20% cheaper than OVO at current prices.

[S2D2]

23 minutes ago, TerryE said:

I've collected half-hourly meter readings from OVO since we had our smart meter fitted in Jan 2018.  OVO stopped recording these on the 6th but Octopus only started on the 8th, so it looks like I am going to have to backfill the lost data somehow at some point if I want a complete bumpless data set.  😱  More to the point, I now need to expedite my new algo though TBH even my old "do as much as  possible 0-7AM" will still be over 20% cheaper than OVO at current prices.

Bright give you access to the DCC data so would cover this period were you so inclined. There's others available but I haven't used them.

[TerryE]

@S2D2 Thanks but since I have to use the Octopus API for future calculation and monitoring this will be a 1-day issue.  I will get the cost of that day when I reconcile my last and first days.  I'll just average the previous and next days then scale to balance the cost, which is a one-time spreadsheet exercise.  I've got to do my data models anyway to support half-hourly costing.

[SteamyTea]

10 hours ago, TerryE said:

I've got to do my data models anyway to support half-hourly costing.

Can you look at the correlation between price distribution.

I have a feeling that when maximum price is high, the minimum price sill also be high, just a hunch as it is all based on the demand/capacity ratio.

May be wrong as, in the scheme of things, the domestic side of this Octopus deal is relatively small.

[TerryE]

@SteamyTea Nick, your point is valid, but I can only take small steps.  I'll update this in a week or so, when I have reworked by optimisation algos and got some initial results.

[TerryE]

One of the things that I really like about Octopus is their pricing transparency.  They publish their pricing formula on their customer portal: they add a 100% markup on the wholesale spot price for their distribution costs / overheads + a 14p premium from 4-7pm UTC to incentivise Agile customers to avoid the peak demand window.  There is also government mandated 100p / kWh price cap.

 

100% might seem a bit steep but overall this is still working out at ~30% less than the OVO E7 tariff. 

[Alan Ambrose]

Well that's interesting, I didn't know they published their pricing algorithm. I'm not sure I understand though why there should be a 14p uplift from 4-7pm in addition to the wholesale price? That seems like double counting and/or subsidising the rest of their customers. 

[TerryE]

@Alan Ambrose, another way to look at it is that OVO seems to use a ~3× markup instead of a 2×, but instead Octopus puts a premium on the 4-7PM window.  Our use is pretty flat outside the 0-7AM windows so I would take the 14p peak premium anyday for cheaper prices (overall) for the rest of the day.

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by TerryE

[Alan Ambrose]

Yeah I've moved a couple of accounts to Agile now and re-programmed our usage a bit. We'll see. Ideally we could use some smart-ish logic that, say, chose to heat the building up more overnight when we find that prices are especially low.

 

I can't find time for that atm as I would need to marry up the Agile api plus the Heatmiser api plus maybe a weather api plus a bit of logic. That sounds like a few day's work even with the work that TerryE's has done already.

[TerryE]

On 20/11/2023 at 17:05, Alan Ambrose said:

Well that's interesting, I didn't know they published their pricing algorithm. I'm not sure I understand though why there should be a 14p uplift from 4-7pm in addition to the wholesale price?

There is a Feb 2019 Octopus blog post, Agile pricing explained, that give a lot more detail on the makeup of the pricing formula.  They've since tweaked on of the coefficients for later contracts and hence the formula for your contract is available on your account portal. 

[Alan Ambrose]

I've just noticed that Octopus give a proper breakdown day-by-day on the bill in 1/2 hour increments, also a monthly average of the daily use (blue line). One page per day. Well done octopus:

 

 

[JohnMo]

Pricing look pretty high at the moment, when compared to the normal E7 rate from Octopus of £0.1516 (0.30 to 07.30) and £0.34 for all other hours.

[Alan Ambrose]

Yeah, not sure, we have not fully optimised our heating schedules yet, but we had an average price on the bill of 24.07p.

 

p.s. this is Octopus's own analysis:

 

Edited December 2, 2023 by Alan Ambrose