Off Peak Storage Battery Charging

Hey @BPLightlog,

This is a really interesting idea!

A few of our Community Members have storage batteries would be interesting to see what they think- @Transparent @jenthomson @Heatherd @dnshorto? 

A SMETS2 meter can be loaded with an Economy 7 tariff and billed accordingly if done properly.

Depending on how time of use night time rates look over the winter it could perhaps be beneficial trying these as well as Economy 7, though these are more unpredictable than having an Economy 7 tariff.

That’s good to know @nealmurphy although currently I can’t get access to any off peak rates

That should say “can’t get access” of course 🤦‍♂️

Keep on at OVO in the hope they can upgrade their capabilities. Otherwise you could consider switching.

Either way your battery should put you in good stead for the OVO Power Move or other similar schemes being set up by other suppliers.

Octopus has got great tariffs that offer a low price period (similar to Economy 7 but different hours) which is ideal for many households. Definitely worth looking into if you understand your usage and how you could move some to other times.

We did have a smart tariff like this when we first got our Tesla Powerwall so it definitely works. You may not get exactly 100% back but the savings definitely outweighed this. 

Thanks for this @jenthomson. I’ve been tracking usage for some time so have some good data to go on. The only hesitation is current tariffs - we are a year away from the current tariff end and so it probably won’t pay to change at the minute. 
 

From what I can see from the trial mentioned by @nealmurphy to be run by OVO, it will only be advantageous if you can reduce demand to less than a percentage of your overall use. For those who already reduce their demand overall (with solar and battery storage for example), it will be difficult to move this percentage even further

@BPLightlog the devil is in the detail, but as it's written currently on the blog:

" We’re looking for participants to cut their average consumption during the peak hours to less than 12.5%. "

Therefore if you're average consumption during the times given is already less tha 12.5%, you've ticked the box.

On the Octopus trial last winter we had to decrease our usage in various 2 hour timeslots by either a certain percentage or by a certain kWh amount. These timeslots were given with varying degrees of notice to see how fast and how much people could react.

I'm not sure if all suppliers are following the same formula this time or if the schemes will vary. But fair play to OVO for picking one of the best names for it! 

Nice post, @BPLightlog - we’ve converted this into an ‘Idea’ which allows other members to vote on it to show they want to see this feature. Make sure you vote on it yourself!

At the moment a customer on a single rate tariff can’t be moved onto a two rate tariff due to a temporary limitation of the billing platform. This will be available soon though. For anyone wanting the opposite, a workaround is available where the off peak and peak rates are changed to the same ‘single rate’ tariff. 

In your case @BPLightlog there’s some good advice above about other tariff options, and about OVO Power Move (be part of it and you’ll be part of a private forum group). I’m not sure I understand what it is you want to see introduced. Are you recommending a tariff that offers low (off peak) import rates to charge your battery? 

Forum Ideas currently works in collaboration with a few product teams for our online tools. Tariffs aren’t something we can pass on directly to the team’s roadmap. However for these ones (good ideas but out of scope), we’ll change them to ‘can’t be done yet’ which still allows for members to vote. I’ll make that change now.  

Thanks @Tim_OVO but I had really wanted various inputs from others - hence the original post. Having said that, with the now publicised need to smooth demand, I can’t understand why off-peak tariff charging for those who can use it, is so difficult.

Hi,

Given I’ve got a battery, I’m sure I could arrange to fill outside of the power move window and then aim to be battery only during the window. Except where the consumption would exceed 2.5kw (small spikes of kettle and oven use) I could carry on as normal.

That’s partly what the battery is for surely (as well as surplus solar in the summer).

I have economy 7. 4.8kw of batteries. In my Enphase app and online account i  can use the TOU feature. Time of use and charge at night. At the moment they are set to charge 2am to 6am. Feb i  will go down to 2am to 5am. Weather permitting I will go to 2am to 4am in march. Then nothing to october at night. It can be done just not by ovo. 

Hi, Just about to get some solar panels and batteries (not from Ovo) and I’m currently on a smart meter economy 7 with Ovo.

Looking at this thread I’m a bit confused, could I charge the batteries overnight? 

The battery installer says their system and app will allow scheduled charging so it should be ok on that side.

But I’m wondering if there could be issues from Ovo side on this?

Cheers

No that should be fine @Birdy. It was just that I don’t have E7 and can’t get it currently. 
Depending in your plan, you should just double check on off peak pricing as E7 tariffs don’t come under the price cap system

I have a smart meter with economy 7. I charge over the winter. It can be done. saves 17p a unit. run your washing machine at night and dishwasher if weather is poor. works well. Just remember to change your TIME of use in spring and turn it off in your solar software. 

You should also be able to set it so all the solar PV goes into the battery without force charging from the grid. That's useful on sunny days if your tariff has an expensive peak period in the evening.

Not strictly true, BP. OVO aren’t allowed to charge more than the EPG price limits. It’s just that the two E7 rates have to be aligned so that an average user would see an average cost per unit below the limit. I reckon that E7 first begins to save the user money when the off-peak usage exceeds 40% of the total. Anything less than 40% and the flat single-rate would be cheaper.