Why does Solar PV make a difference for compatibility with Charge Anytime?

Hi @BPLightlog - thank you for the very prompt response. Much appreciated.

Not having that charger model would appear to exclude my set-up from this tariff (or exclude this tariff from my list of energy suppliers.) Oh well.

I'd been a very happy OVO customer until I acquired an EV. At that stage they had no appropriate tariff at all with off-peak charging unless I got a second meter installed. So I moved supplier, but I do keep monitoring what's available. I'll stay where I am just now, but who knows what the future may bring.

Thanks again. 

No problem. There’s a few of us pop in to see if we can help from time to time. 
Actually I recently moved as I wanted a tariff that I could shift my usage (solar and battery) out of peak and couldn’t get one with OVO

Ah, yes. I guess this forum is a wholly inappropriate venue to start discussing other, non-OVO, tariffs! 😉

Actually that’s ok. They like the feedback and this forum has become the ‘go-to’ place for everything energy related. From my perspective, no supplier is perfect. I’m just keen to pass on what I’ve learned to help people become smarter with their usage. 

… no supplier is perfect ...

No indeed. It all ends up as a compromise of 50 different priorities.

My previous 5+ year experience with OVO had genuinely been excellent. As close to perfect as I could imagine. There’s a saying that “the best service is no service” and that was true with OVO. I never had to use their customer service team. Everything I needed was either available online or built-in to their supply system. That is, until I got an EV about 18 months ago.

Unlike other suppliers there was no obvious OVO tariff I could transition to, offering offpeak charging, without getting a second meter installed for Economy 7. And yet OVO had organised the installation of an SMETS2 smart meter a couple of years previously. They could already see my usage every half-hour. Strange. Anyway …

I moved to Octopus, who did cater for both offpeak charging and subsequently the SEG payments on the PV installation I also acquired. They are rated very highly by Which? and others but I find elements of their system lacking. I have had to contact their customer service team several times, and I find them slow and unconvincing. I’ve bumped across 3 or 4 different tariffs with Octopus, experimenting to see which one suits my lifestyle best. Currently I’m in the early stages of using their Intelligent Octopus Go tariff where they determine the best (most economical) times for EV charging. In theory my EV+charger+IOG passed the initial test charge to prove their compatibility, but since then there have been a few instances of the vehicle suddenly starting charging at high peak times. I’m still waiting on Octopus’ customer service team to investigate and respond. 

Thank goodness the electrons all these suppliers provide are identical!! Imagine if there were a difference in the quality of the electricity as well. I’d give up at that point and go back to firewood!

I recently opted for an Ohme ePod charger and have solar panels but still waiting on my car to be delivered. As of yet this setup is not supported by charge anytime however my intention was to turn my solar panels off at the circuit breaker which I have in my garage before charging. 

I was also advised this may not be an issue since the smart meter is bidirectional?? My solar panels were installed by the house builder and is no more than a 1kw system. 

The issue with CA is that the system cannot tell where the power comes from (unless you’re using the Indra charger) so whatever your solution, you might still get charged for power that you generate yourself

Some helpful advice here from @BPLightlog.

I wonder if any of our other community members have been faced with a similar scenario & can give best advice for next steps? I see @Walter Eagle has spoken of their experience, which seems mixed. 

If the relationship between Charge Anytime & Solar Panels changes we’ll update all relevant forum topics. 

I'm assuming I will charge the car mostly through the night when the solar input won't matter and in reality for it's worth the small amount I do produce surely won't compare to charging my car and saving with CA. Thanks

Here we are March 2025 and still no solution to the problem of solar panels certain ev's, ohme chargers and charge anytime.

I have been a satisfied customer of ovo for a few years and do not wish to move supplier, but am frustrated that this problem is not being resolved or a workaround fixed

Hey ​@philgb,

Do you currently have an Ohme charger? At the moment Ohme are the only chargers that doesn’t offer solar support and I haven’t heard of any plans that this will change in the near future. You can find more information on our eligibility page.

I’m sorry for any frustration this has caused you!

Hi Chris,

Let's say I had a peugeot E3008 being charged through an Ohme pod and on ovo charge anytime tarrif.

I have solar panels max 3kw in summer sun

The peugeot E3008 is scheduled to charge nighttime only between 10pm to 8am. The solar system is physically turned off.. Are you with me up to now?

When charging through the ohme is finished, the cable is disconnected and the solar system turned back on after 8am.

Q. Why is this workaround system not workable with charge anytime?

For Charge Anytime to work with Solar setups, the Charger - and by extension Charge Anytime - needs to know exactly where the power being used to charge the EV is coming from at all times, even when nothing is connected to the Charger.

Otherwise, it creates a risk of things like invalid credits being issued when they shouldn’t be.

I believe the issue comes down to the work needed to be done by energy suppliers to make a different charger compatible. There simply aren't enough resorces to do this so suppliers choose to concentrate on a limited range which means that if you have an incompatible charger then it is unlikely to happen. Given that chargers are £1,000 a pop people who already have that model tend to gravitate to the suppliers who support it not the other way around. It's not that OVO don't want to support that charger it takes a lot of effort and cost to integrate it into Charge Anytime

On the other side of the coin if you had got OVO to install a charger you might find that you can't find another supplier to support it so you are effectively locked in with your supplier which, if that had been done deliberately, could be considered anti-competitive.

If you don't have solar then you would have more compatibility options by controlling the car. It's the decision to add solar to your setup that actually restricts your choice later on. It's a limitation of technology and lack of a business case that stops all setups being transportable to other suppliers and hence a better choice for the customer.

Peter