Price increases for off-peak rates

  • 28 December 2023
  • 34 replies
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34 replies

Tim_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Hi @SteveUK 

 

I just wanted to chip in here to give some context on the Superdeal plan and the Ofgem price cap. 

 

I’ve been advised that the average unit rate for a multi-rate customer in the southern regions is 27.78p, which is the average rate for your Superdeal plan. In terms of the differences between the rates and changes on the 1st of January, how that’s worked out is by OVO and factors in lots, guided by the consumption splits for the tariff to ensure price cap compliance.

 

Let me know if you have any further questions around this change and I’ll do my best to get you the answers you need. 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
S
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The average rate obviously depends on how many units of the 3 rates the consumer uses - and is likely to vary from consumer to consumer.  But whatever calculations have been done that fact remains that the price savings on the off-peak rates are now MUCH reduced. 

The fact that the heating rate is now MORE than the off-peak rate is totally contrary to the ethos of the heating rate (which has been lower than the off-peak rate ever since the Superdeal tariff was introduced).

It would now make more sense to run the storage heaters on the off-peak rate at night and the heating rate during the afternoon top-up period but this is impossible to achieve.  This is very consumer-unfriendly especially for those of us with a large number of storage heaters (we have 10).

I would prefer a higher day rate and lower off-peak and heating rates.

J
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Userlevel 3

The BG quantum tariff requires the use of their new intelligent (and very expensive) storage heaters.  If I was replacing one or two this might be of interest but for 10 the cost is prohibitive.

No need for regret here. You don’t qualify for it anyway. It’s only for those who currently have a conventional (not-smart) E7 meter and already has the heaters.

I only have one heater, and it needs replacing, so I was very tempted by this offer and I rang the number to confirm this. It’s very mystifying. How many people would spend the money to buy intelligent heaters but to bother for a free meter upgrade? It’s not a bait&switch, because they did not try to get my details when it proved I didn’t qualify. I also asked, assuming I had the right meter, if I could buy the heaters and then opt into the tariff, and he said in theory, but he couldn’t guarantee the tariff would still be offered then. Also, as there is no joined-up way of buying the heaters, if somehow the one I chose wasn’t acceptable I would be sh*t out of luck.

Nice if you happen to have the perfectly configured home for this offer, but I am mystified why the did a mailbox drop to my neighbourhood. We have no gas, but I can’t imagine there are many that have this peculiar mix of expensive high-tech and free-to-upgrade low tech. 

M
Rank

Just received notification of the price changes from 1 January:

Day rate - reduced by 6.22p/unit

Night rate - increased by 2.15p/unit (10% increase)

Heating rate - increased by 5.07p/unit (24.6% increase!!)

This means that the night rate savings is reduced from 17.45p to 9.08p/unit

And the Heating rate savings in reduced from 18.45p to just 7.16p/unit - and this is the first time EVER that the Heating rate has been more expensive than the night rate.

This is grossly unfair of those of us with electric heating (storage heaters). 

It also significantly reduces the savings that can be made by storing night rate in a battery for use during the day time. 

This is a massive backward step by OVO.  They should be incentivising us to use electricity when its cheaper to generate.  Instead, it looks like they are trying to reduce the savings that can be made by storing heat/electricity in order to increase their profits further. 

I am not happy.

 

S
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Mabels:your reply is blank

M
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Hi I just wanted to say that I also have Superdeal and am most unhappy with the way OVO have split the January 2024 price increase.  Day rate reduced, night rate up and storage rate up even higher. Superdeal is supposed to be a cheap rate for night storage heaters, that seems to have ended and because our meters have to be replaced soon we cannot change tariff or even change to Economy 7 which has a much lower night rate. Feel OVO are being very unfair.

S
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Yes, I agree.  I have complained to OVO and asked for an explanation/justification for the large increase in the heating rate.  They say the prices are set by OFGEM but I don’t think this is correct.  OFGEM may set the cap for the average but I don’t they specify how the this is distributed between the rates of a multl-rate tariff (which are specific to the supplier). 

Our off-peak and heating rate consumption makes up more than 90% of our annual use so we will experience a significant price increase as this far out-weighs the reduction in the peak rate.  I wonder if they have really thought this through for people who have storage heaters and those of us able to shift most of our consumption away from the peak hours (which is supposed to be encouraged!).

Economy 7 would be a very poor substitute for Superdeal as the storage heaters and the immersion heater need an off-peak boost during the afternoon to work effectively.

M
Rank

I have also complained to OVO and had the same answer as you.  Not sure where we go from here. Feel they have made an error  with the split or have just upped the storage heating  charge as we cannot change meters at the moment. Not at all happy,

 

Jan

Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hey @mabels,

 

I understand your frustration,

 

This is an interesting thread, I’ll also see if I can find out internally how the split is worked out.

 

This is what OFGEM have said about the Price Cap Increase. I wonder if the split is to do with the cost of wholesale energy in regards to what energy costs from the grid in peak vs off peak times? 

 

Pop back if you can to update the topic with what the Complaints Team advise, it may be helpful for other customers in the same boat. 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.

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