Hi John we have now got one in the hall looks like a flying saucer and you have to leave all the doors open and it was wired up in one hour
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I am also Octopus customer so far not had a email saying charges going up in January 2023
Nor I - but in October I didn't find out the detailed rates until my first bill after 1st Oct.
This is the email…….
Dear John,
The Government recently announced some changes to the Energy Price Guarantee: the scheme put in place from October to cap energy prices in the crisis (although your bill will still vary based on how much you use).
The first change was a surprise: due to the updated Ofgem Price Cap, some Energy Price Guarantee rates are changing in January.
This is because the Energy Price Guarantee is tied — imperfectly — to the Ofgem Price Cap (if you’re curious, read more at the bottom of this letter).
At a practical level, this means price changes – some up, some down – to Energy Price Guarantee electricity rates in many regions.
The majority of changes are reasonably small, and where we can, we’re absorbing any rises and passing on reductions.
However, Economy 7 rates are rising disproportionately (see the PS for more). We will not make a profit this year — indeed, we’ve spent over £150 million holding down prices so far in this crisis — and sadly we’ve no option but to pass this increase on.
So your electricity unit rates will increase on January 1 by around 8% — none of your other rates are increasing. There’s a personalised breakdown of the change attached.
We’re not adjusting your monthly payments right now — we know a lot of customers are working hard to reduce their energy use this Winter, and the last thing we want to do is hold onto your money if it’s not required.
Our usual checks will keep an eye on your account and suggest a change if it looks like you may be falling behind, but if you’d like to change your payments yourself, you can do so at any time with just a few taps in your online account.
Looking further ahead, based on current plans, energy prices will rise a further 20% in April — taking a typical home annual bill from around £2,500 to £3,000 — as the Government scales back the amount of support available.
With the £67 monthly credits from the Energy Bill Support Scheme also ending in March, we know April is going to be a difficult time for many.
If you are having difficulty paying, make sure you're getting the support you're entitled to. This blog post outlines all the help available from the Government, Octopus, and others, plus how to access it.
Our commitment to stand by our customers throughout the crisis is unchanged. You’ll continue to receive your Octopus discounted standing charges — lower than any other large supplier — throughout the next price cap period.
We’ve now helped 60,000 customers with their bills through our Octopus Assist fund, and our energy helpers have visited 80,000 homes to help customers reduce their bills.
Remarkably, so far this Winter we’ve also paid customers over £1 million in rewards for using less electricity when the grid is under stress as part of our Saving Sessions — this is National Grid money that would previously have gone to gas, diesel or coal generators to increase supply during a squeeze.
This is a remarkable result, with Octopus customers collectively reducing electricity demand equivalent to the entire city of Leicester. There’s many more sessions to come — we’re expecting to give away at least another £2 million in rewards before March, which could lower your electricity bill by up to £80.
If you’d like to get involved, it’s super easy and you don’t need to do much to save: perhaps shifting meal times a little, or warming your home earlier in the day.
You just need a connected smart meter — if you already have one, sign up to Saving Sessions here — it’s absolutely free and you can opt–out at any time — or register your interest in getting a smart meter here.
Yours sincerely,
The Co-op Energy team
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Ps. If you’re wondering why Economy 7 rates are rising disproportionately…
The Government’s Energy Price Guarantee is actually a discount to the energy prices set by Ofgem’s Energy Price Cap — it’s designed to limit the prices a customer pays, regardless of what future wholesale costs do.
So if you used the same amount of energy as a “typical” household, the discounted rates would add up to an annual bill of £2,500, regardless of the cost of energy in your area. Use less, your bills are lower. Use more, your bills are higher.
To maintain steady(ish) prices, the amount of the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee discount needs to change when the prices set by Ofgem’s Energy Price Cap change (which is every 3 months).
While the average unit rate across Britain will stay the same in January, there are some (mostly minor) regional variations in electricity prices, just due to the differing costs of supplying energy to each region.
However — and this is where things get bonkers — the Economy 7 discount for the Energy Price Guarantee is the same as the single rate discount (which is then split between day and night rates).
On the other hand, Ofgem’s Energy Price Cap has a different calculation for Economy 7 rates, which takes into account that Economy 7 homes are more likely to heat their homes and hot water with electricity (thereby using more electricity over Winter) and that electricity prices are incredibly high at the moment.
In January, the Ofgem Energy Price Cap for Economy 7 is increasing 37%, but the cap for standard rates — from which the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee discount is calculated — is only increasing by 30%.
It’s the difference between these two that is driving Economy 7 costs up from January.
We know this is the last thing anyone needs. We’ve worked hard to try to get Ofgem and the Government to sort out this discrepancy, but to no avail, and regrettably we now have no choice but to pass it on. We’ll keep working hard with Ofgem and the Government to hopefully find a better solution for April onwards.
John
John's email is different to mine.
Mine is as follows.
Alistair,
From 1 January, Ofgem is changing the unit rates for energy. These vary depending on where you live, your meter type, and how you pay for your energy.
We're increasing our electricity day unit rate from 35.483p to 38.129p per kWh and our night unit rate from 23.224p to 24.955p per kWh. Our electricity standing charge is staying the same at 45.860p per day.
We're keeping our gas unit rate the same at 10.236p per kWh and our standing charge at 28.484p per day.
Your prices are in line with the Government Energy Price Guarantee, which ensures a typical UK household pays an average of £2,500 per year. This will save a typical UK household around £900 this winter.
These prices all include VAT at 5%.
We've attached a letter with more information about your new unit rates and the Government Energy Price Guarantee discount.
Mine is as follows.
Alistair,
From 1 January, Ofgem is changing the unit rates for energy. These vary depending on where you live, your meter type, and how you pay for your energy.
We're increasing our electricity day unit rate from 35.483p to 38.129p per kWh and our night unit rate from 23.224p to 24.955p per kWh. Our electricity standing charge is staying the same at 45.860p per day.
We're keeping our gas unit rate the same at 10.236p per kWh and our standing charge at 28.484p per day.
Your prices are in line with the Government Energy Price Guarantee, which ensures a typical UK household pays an average of £2,500 per year. This will save a typical UK household around £900 this winter.
These prices all include VAT at 5%.
We've attached a letter with more information about your new unit rates and the Government Energy Price Guarantee discount.
I think mine may be different as we are on economy 7
I called Octopus and they calculated that we would be slightly better. off coming off economy 7. But as there is an 8% increase coming my way in Jan. It is a no brainer.
John
Well i have contacted Octopus and they said we will send you an email if charges have alter but i am not on economy 7 . but like everything you have to pay it .
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If Octopus had all this spare cash to support customers surely it shows that they like other suppliers have been ripping off customers to make huge profits? All the suppliers are guilty of charging too much.
No issue with any supplier making a reasonable profit , but grossly over charging to make massive profits at the expense of the consumer cannot be right!
No issue with any supplier making a reasonable profit , but grossly over charging to make massive profits at the expense of the consumer cannot be right!
I am also on economy 7, lots of calculations to be done to see what will be the cheapest option for us.
Strange then that we both got different emails as we are both on E7.
When our house was built it had ducted hearing from a central 10kw storage heater. So economy 7 was needed. We have since had gas installed and gas heating. We do try to use power in off-peak times. But my wife does not like to do washing overnight. So the main thing is the dish washer.
The calculation done by Octopus shows we should be on a single rate, but it is marginal. As the E7 rate is set to rise by 8% I am applying to be swapped over after Christmas.
John
Regardless of the amount of profit. We must remember that a lot of companies went bust. Octopus are competitive but survive. I think they must run efficiently but they also provide great customer service. I don't remember hearing about disgruntled customers.
John
I agree that I have not heard a poor report on Octopus. when our BG contract ends in April 2023 I am planning to look at them, as Customer Service is something I welcome. Aren't Octopus lined up to take onboard Bulb, who have cost the taxpayer billions so far.
I've heard one bad report of Octopus, an ex-caravanner but on a different forum - his gripe is that Octopus won't let him reduce his direct debit despite removing a 13,000 kwh Aga gas cooker/range - I don't understand as I can set my direct debit to any figure on Octopus's website.
But apart from that, I've heard of nothing bad at Octopus.
Octopus finally took over Bulb on the the 20th December at 11.58pm. I received an Email from Bulb/Octopus, the next day.
In simple terms a business needs to be able to charge its present day customers enough to enable the business to buy future product. In the energy market at the moment those future prices are set to remain on an upward trend, so if you want energy to be supplied in the future you have to expect to pay more now.
Whether income now is excessive is very emotive, but the reality is a company needs to have a greater income over expenditure surplus to provide it with working capital to fund maintenance, repairs, improvements, new infrastructure and to cover cost of raw materials increases. It is also the case that Gov't has instructed energy suppliers to invest in customer support, all of which costs - and its customers who have to pay for it - one way or another.
The fact is with such large businesses even low percentage profit margin's may seem huge to the individual, but to judge them fairly you need to see the whole picture. Using the adjective "huge" may be an unfair in this case, as the business needs to have a profit margin that allows it to move forward rather than stagnate or go back wards as has happened with quite a number of energy suppliers recently.
As an Octopus customer, my understanding is that they took over most of the staff as well as the customers - so the extra work in customer support does have extra resources to cope with all the inevitable ex-Bulb customer queries.
I understand that some of the other suppliers are bringing a judicial review in the new year. So there may still be changes.
The govt wanted to end the cost drain of owning Bulb - Octopus offered a way out which the govt accepted - unless other suppliers offered more for Bulb and were rejected, they've no case to complain that Octopus paid too little.
I am aware of the position and I do keep up with events. But why then are some of the other suppliers considering a judicial review? The deal has not been revealed publicly but HMG ()IE the taxpayer) will input £4.5 bn into Octopus until the end of March. That’s in addition to a cash injection plus HMG covering any admin and compensation costs arising from the transfer. Even the NAO have started an investigation to try and unravel the basis of this transfer and lack of HMG transparency.
One of the things I don't understand about the Bulb failure is that their customers were allowed to continue with their (cheap) fixed price deals at taxpayers' expense - in contrast to customers of other bust suppliers who were transferred onto (expensive) standard tariffs at their new supplier.
You and me both. Could it be that even the more expensive capped rates are costing the suppliers money which at some stage customers will have to pay back. To load further loss making customers from Bulb would exacerbate an already difficult situation. Hence the pseudo nationalisation made worse by the war in Ukraine. It’s almost akin to the RBS situation in 2008. Too big to fail.
The irritating thing, which I've often alluded to, is that Scottish Power, and others, claim to generate their electricity from 100% wind power or other renewable sources. The price of electricity generation is governed by the cost of gas, everytime gas prices rise and the cap is increased this just generates more profit for these companies. So the little relief they are giving me - less than 1p per unit - is an infintesimal amount compared to what shareholders and directors will get.
There is talk of decoupling renewables from the price of gas but is just another lot of hot air at the moment.
Rant over
There is talk of decoupling renewables from the price of gas but is just another lot of hot air at the moment.
Rant over
This might be an interesting read
Wind farms to pay back £660m under CfD scheme amid high gas prices
Wind farms are expected to pay back £660 million under the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme amid the current energy crisis.
www.current-news.co.uk
It needs to be remembered that the power they are suppying was more than likely bought two or three years ago at a much lower rate and not at today's prices.
But its todays income that has to purchase tomorrows power.
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