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    128 Ideas

    BepreciseCarbon Cutter****

    Simple method to enable Charge Anytime with Solar PanelsOpen for votes

    Charge Anytime sounds like a great innovation for anyone with an EV, but currently does not support Solar Panel owners as it is not possible to distinguish between energy coming from the grid (and liable for credit) and energy coming from Solar (or other home) generation (which would not be liable for credit).Given that Solar energy is only created during day light hours, the scheme could have a “Charge NightTime” credit scheme, which would probably satisfy most EV and Solar Panel owners. Even during peak summer days, I note that my panels do not generate any electric after 9pm and before 5:30am. I live in Cambridge, so possibly in Scotland there’s a small variance, but I doubt more than 30 minutes. Hence “Charge NightTime” credit scheme could easily operate between 9:30pm and 5am and be satisfactory. (Currently I am on Economy 7 plan and hence only ever charge my EV between midnight and 7am, so this seems very reasonable to me).Of course, someone may also have a battery associated with their Solar Panel system and could therefore “cheat” the system by charging their home battery from solar and then use the Home Battery to charge their EV at night time and get credit when it is not due. However I would wager that few people have a home battery system that can deliver a sustained 7KW delivery. Most invertors from battery systems are only ~3KW capable. You pay your money and make your choice (if the installer ever enlightened you about such a choice). The biggest I knew of was Tesla’s PowerWall 2 Battery that can deliver 5KW sustained with 10 second short peaks of 7KW. Charging a car is best done as fast as possible, though clearly there are use cases (the final few percent or significantly discharged battery in cold weather) when the charging rate should be lower. Hence to eliminate these possible cheats, a further limitation is placed on when credit is made such that the charging rate is 7KW (probably >6KW is good actual test), which can be validated by both data read from the Smart EV (they always show a charging rate, normally in mph), and even further validated by the Smart Meter in the home. If the charging rate is lower than 6KW, then the credit is not applied, but the car can still be charged at the normal tariff.IMO, this should be a simple (software) validation test, (ie: after 9:30pm and before 5am, and charge rate >6KW in the car and by the Smart Meter) that would satisfy most EV Users for 95% of their needs. This still provides a 7.5 hour window for Ovo to decide when to charge EVs at low rate, (eg: excess wind power etc) with a potential charge for the User of up to 50KW in one evening.It’s also fairly simple to explain to customers …..

    PipefishCarbon Cutter*****

    Add charge percentage option. Eg. ‘add 30%’ - for all EVs in charge anytime app.Open for votes

    I’ve just switched from the other supplier that integrates with your home EV charger.The way it worked with them was that you told the app which car you had and it looked up the battery capacity and other details from a database. Then when you set your charging schedule you selected how much charge to add via a drop down.So you could look at what charge you had left, say 20%, then select, ‘add 60% by 5am’ - and it would work out how much energy 60% of that capacity was (just maths, no actual feedback required from the car) and add that much charge. Meaning that you had 80% charge in the morning. It worked very well and was accurate to -/+ 1%.My vehicle has no option to stop charging at a certain limit, but in the manual it says to only charge to 80% for day to day use to avoid battery degradation. With charge anytime I have no option but to charge to 100%. I found this very disappointing when I switched as I assumed it would be the same as the other supplier and when looking into this before switching I saw reviews and videos suggesting that you could select a level of charge to stop at. When I set up the charge anytime app and it asked me for the usable capacity of my EV battery I assumed this feature is what that information was required for. Sadly not though. I’m currently trying to work out if there’s a workaround for this that doesn’t involve me getting up in the middle of the night to check my charge status. This feature is a very obvious and I assume relatively simple thing to add and would improve the service massively.

    Firedog
    Plan Zero Hero
    FiredogPlan Zero Hero

    Reverse recent changes to the Direct Debit calculationOpen for votes

    Until 1 October 2023, Direct Debits were calculated by summing the projected cost over the next 12 months or to the end of a fixed-term contract, subtracting the current balance and dividing the result by the number of DDs remaining. A change was then made which involved calculating the DD required to bring the balance to zero on the following 31 March, the end of the winter semester. This was not popular:those in debt found that there were fewer months left in which to pay off the debt, meaning that the DD had to rise accordingly.  those in credit were advised to reduce their DD to meet the new target. This would inevitably lead to a mandatory increase from 1 April. On 1 November last, the system changed again. Now, customers on both variable-rate and fixed-rate tariffs find that their DDs have to change in order to return the account balance to zero by 31 March 2026, 17 months ahead. This is advantageous for those in debt, with now 12 more months than before in which to pay off the debt. For those in credit, it means maintaining an unnecessarily high balance for a whole year. Requiring a balance of more than one month’s projected costs at the end of a fixed term contract is unreasonable. Furthermore, Ofgem say that:Where a consumer is in a credit position, we expect suppliers to reduce the associated Direct Debit level with the intention of returning the account as close to a zero balance over the next 12 months.  --  Direct Debit Market Compliance Review: Progress Update | Ofgem  Please will OVO consider revising the way DDs are calculated in order to meet Ofgem’s expectation?