Price increases for off-peak rates (Superdeal)

Please tell us which tariff you’re on - we can’t figure it out from the information you provided.

Superdeal

I see.

Since you’re on the legacy Superdeal tariff, it’s actually not going to affect anywhere near as many folks as your post initially seems to suggest - there’s a difference between “this’ll affect millions of folks across the UK” and “this only affects a handful of folks in very specific conditions”. Anyone on Economy 7 for example will not have three rates, so this change definitely won’t affect them - and there’s WAY more E7 than SD accounts on OVO’s books, that’s for sure.

It’s also worth noting that Superdeal is a massively outdated legacy tariff that’s no longer actively supported nor sold (and hasn’t been sold for some time) - you can only get Superdeal if you move into a property that already has it. Because it also depends on the RTS Service, you’ll need to replace the meter(s) you’ve currently got sooner rather than later anyway before the RTS Signal goes offline.

On top of that, you’re not allowed to send go juice to any kind of battery using the Heating Rate on Superdeal - it can only be used for storage heaters and immersion heaters. Everything else has to be wired up on the regular side of the setup.

I suspect the rates are like that because it’s all OVO can get right now - and it’s worth remembering that it’s not OVO raking in massive profits off of this. It’s the generators rather than the suppliers who get giant windfalls - OVO is not one of the former as they don’t have any generation capacity of their own.

Additionally, I’ve had confirmation that OVO isn’t required to support Superdeal - in both tariff and meter type - anymore, whether they do so or not going forwards is basically a decision that Ofgem has delegated to OVO so it’s ultimately a business decision that Ofgem won’t touch. I’ve actually had information that Ofgem wants to not just allow OVO to deprecate and sunset Superdeal, but they are also showing strong support for OVO to do so.

I think your best bet is to upgrade to a Smart Meter and switch the tariff over to something more appropriate for your use case. Normally, I don’t force people to do that if they don’t want to, but in the case of anyone with an RTS Meter, I’m afraid my hand is forced by external factors in that the RTS Service is shutting down anyway, which will likely break your meter when it does close. As such, this is the only solution I can offer you advice on because there really is nothing else.

As for the “overnight is always cheaper” thing? Sorry, not anymore. The grid is changing and what worked all those years ago no longer works now. This video by Tom Scott explains that really well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0JDK_71yDg

There are many people using economy 7 and they will also be affected (to a lesser extent).

Our storage heating system was designed with the help of SSE using the Superdeal tariff - but it sounds as if we are going to be abandoned because there are relatively few people on that tariff. That provides me with no re-assurance.

Storage heating systems (and electric hot water systems) are much more effective if they have a boost during the afternoon.  Our system would not work nearly as well if operated on economy 7.

For the reasons above, we cannot switch to a smart meter (as these only provide 2 rates).

I have been advised that OVO are working on a replacement for RTS - but your comments cast significant doubt on this.

Why do smart meters not allow more than 2 rates and/or operate intelligently so that energy/heat can be stored in off-peak periods?

Why are you not promoting/supporting tariffs that encourage the use of (clean) electric heating?

I’m now even more unhappy.

This was shared with me a few weeks ago by an industry contact I talk to sometimes. They wish to remain anonymous.

We've had a solution in place to replace Superdeal and other RTS arrangements for a while with the 5 terminal meters. There is nothing in any licence requiring us to support a metering solution the customer wants, in fact Ofgem fully supports our desire to move customers to smart and offer them solutions to allow them to benefit from what Smart has to offer.

A customer can chose to not have the Smart meters we support and that is their choice, although it does mean they cannot have certain products.

You’re ultimately going to have to accept that you’ll no longer find tariffs with three rates in the style that Superdeal had. It might in fact be that OVO has something more modern that’ll give you a solution that works. You’ll just need to discuss that with them.

Personally, I kinda see this as an incentive to migrate off of Superdeal more than anything else. As time passes, I suspect the value of it will continue to be eroded to the point where it’s actually a terrible deal - assuming OVO doesn’t just completely pull the plug and kill the tariff entirely before that point.

For some use cases, it’s likely that a better deal than all this legacy RTS stuff already exists anyway. For others, OVO will probably figure something out.

@SteveUK Economy 10 might be your solution. It’s off peak for 5 hours overnight, 3 in the afternoon and 2 in the evening. Allegedly coming. I’ve got it now, as an SSE legacy.

Yes, Economy 10 would be great but my understanding is that it’s also a legacy tariff and that I’m not able to switch to it.  I assume it also relies on RTS so will suffer the same fate as Superdeal (unless they devise a replacement).  How are the rates changing for Economy 10?  Are the savings being reduced in a similar manner to those I outlined?

OVO appears to have Smart Economy 9 which is supported by the looks of things. It’s more or less the same as Economy 10 - you must have a Smart Meter to get this tariff, it’s not available at all without one. E10 MIGHT also continue to be supported if you migrate to a Smart Meter

You’d be best to talk to them - they’ll tell you all the options you can pick from.

Not RTS, I am on a Smart Meter. I had the Smart Meter installed a year ago by SSE. I don’t know if it an RTS meter before, as I have only just started to become a meter nerd 🤓, but I was able to keep my tariff and eventually migrate it to Ovo.

Yeah, it’s moving in the same regressive direction as yours, but not as egregiously. The OP price will go from 72% of the peak to 79%. Not great, agreed.

Yes, Smart Economy 9 sounds worth investigating.  Is there a link which provides details of all the tariffs available (which we can switch to) AND the current and new rates.  My OVO invoice says I’m on the best tariff (Superdeal) but I wonder if that is no longer correct.

If someone switches to a smart meter and, say, Economy 9, who pays for the re-wiring of the consumer units (and time switches?) required to ensure the storage heaters and immersion heater only come on during the cheap rate periods?