Energy Price Cap

I'm on whatever the pleb rates are for Octopus Smart meter customers.

The prices for their other tariffs are not easy to divine (I guess their excuse is that they can change daily ....). However a cursory glance at last Sundays prices when I found them revealed there was nothing to be gained by locking myself into a contract. Currently I am free to switch whenever.

Currently, my prices are pretty well defined. I really cannot see the point in switching to a contract where the prices are only defined relative to something which itself can change hourly.

rates for SE Essex

You are probably on their standard variable rate Elect : 25.21p/kwh, standing 48.79p/day Gas : 6.16p/kwh, standing 29.38/day

This means you are possibly on their most expensive tariff which will increase in January.

They have a fixed tariff for a year Elect: 23.62p/kwh, standing 48.79p/day Gas: 5.68p/kWh, standing 29.38p/day

There is no exit fee penalty

Then there are all the variable tariffs some of which change daily.

If you want to take a gamble with prices that track the wholesale price they have a tracker tariff that changes daily. In mid winter you may save nothing but in summer perhaps a couple of £100s

For my area the prices for both gas and electricity for this Novemeber, with a comparison to the Ofgen cap, are shown at

There is no exit fee penality for quiting the tracker tariff BUT having quit you cannot rejoin for 9 months.

They also have tariffs to aimed at those with EVs and/or with whole house batteries or for those with heat pumps where off peak electricity at 7p/kwH is supplied in the early hours of the day. etc.

Apart from the standard variable tariff and 12 month fixed price contract you would need a working smart meter.

I'm on Octopus Tracker which is a variable daily price. I keep an eye on the rates via the third party OctoTracker app and since February only one day (6 Nov) has the electricity gone above the price cap level, and never for gas. Usually they're quite a bit below the cap (eg elec today is

Why would anyone be on anybody's standard variable rate?

Possibly until this year it was the cheapest tariff after the hike in prices as a result of Putin's war?

It is actually better than that... It has been consistently below the CAP, and often well below it, but how low is dependent on demand, and weather. Yesterday for instance, a weekend so demand was low, and the wind was blowing the windmills round, so it was half the CAP. There was also a free power session, of two hours, from 7am to 9am.

It would have been rude, not to take full advantage of the free, so we made use of the immersion, a couple of electric heaters, and did three washes. Today, is a little more expensive at 17p Kwh.

Cos they dont want a smart meter?

Wot have smart meter to do with it? Whether on a standard variable or fixed rate, you need to have or report meter readings.

You don't know the difference???

Between what?

They have replied saying:

"Thank you for your reply, unfortunately if the wholesale energy market prices increase it would mean E.ON Next as a business would also pay a higher rate to buy the energy.

As a customer you are well within your rights to shop around and find the best deal however this is how E.ON Next operates within its business model."

So they are treating the cap as a target even though they say themselves "The price cap is a limit on the price that can be charged for the energy that powers your home."

Very odd as E.on next offer a tariff that's guaranteed to be less than the price cap....

Dace

I'm on the Octopus tracker and during November the price of gas has been below the cap price* for around 50% of the time and above the cap price for the other 50% albeit not by much in either case and on average over the whole month roughly equal to the cap price.

In general electricity has been over or equal to the cap but as you indicated 40% lower on Sunday and 20% lower than the cap today (Monday). Average over the month of November so far very marginally higher than the cap.

The previous month was better with the majority of days being priced lower than the cap price.

You'll not get anywhere by trying to lecture e.on about prices rising to the limit OFGEM allows them to rise to. If you don't like the prices change tariff, or change supplier ...

They need to correct their wording.

They will just argue that they actually wanted to charge more but ofgem forced them to cap the prices.

Are you sure? This is the graph I'm getting from OctoTracker:

The cap went up in October, are you perhaps using the cap rate from before then?

Or are you on a different 'Tracker' tariff? I know they have different names from when you signed up, but I thought the actual rates were the same?

Theo

I'm looking at

The OctoTracker site say todays price is Elect 24.65p/kWh Gas 5.99p/kWh

The Octopus App shows I'm on the October 2024 V1 tracker tariff with today's price of Elect 26.99p/kWh Gas 6.33p/kWh

Ah, interesting. It says it's a 12 month fixed term tariff (where the term is fixed not the prices), and there are four different Tracker tariffs in action at the moment: https://octopus.energy/tracker-faqs/ eg:

Here's the formula if you joined or renewed before 3 April 10am GST East England Electricity unit charge: (W * 1.2012) + 10.3059 p per kWh Gas unit charge: (W * 0.03604) + 1.3167 p per kWh

Here's the formula if you joined or renewed on or after 3 April 2024 at 10am BST East England Electricity unit charge: (W * 1.2012) + 10.8298 p per kWh Gas unit charge: (W * 0.03604) + 1.3622 p per kWh

Here's the formula if you joined or renewed on or after 1 July 2024 at 10:30am BST East England Electricity unit charge: (W * 1.2492) + 12.0750 p per kWh Gas unit charge: (W * 0.03604) + 1.7448 p per kWh

Here's the formula if you joined or renewed on or after 1 October 2024 at 9:00am BST East England Electricity unit charge: (W * 1.2492) + 11.9522 p per kWh Gas unit charge: (W * 0.03604) + 1.7293 p per kWh

so the calculation has drifted up and down over the last year.

Theo