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Introducing Charge Anytime - next generation EV charging

Introducing Charge Anytime - next generation EV charging
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Here’s the latest on our new electric vehicle charging type-of-use plan

 

We’ve relaunched Anytime as Charge Anytime. It’s not only a new name, we’ve made some updates to the product and we want to tell you all about it…

 

See our Charge Anytime product page here

 

What are the headline facts about Charge Anytime?

 

  • Smart charge your electric vehicle for 10p per kWh whenever you need to,
  • Now available to be added to any OVO plan, including electric-only households,
  • Intelligently optimises your charge for when the energy is at its greenest.*
     

Am I eligible?

 

You can see all eligibility details in our Charge Anytime page here.

 

  • You must be an OVO Energy customer and have an eligible car or charger. We’re constantly looking to open up the eligibility of this product to more EV models and chargers, so if you don’t see your tech here, keep an eye on our page. 
  • Right now, solar panels aren’t compatible with Charge Anytime (unless you have an Indra Pro Smart Charger). But we’re working on making this happen soon.
     

Our customers and trialists have really played a huge role in shaping Charge Anytime, not least the members of this forum. Leave a comment below if you have any questions, feedback and to let us know if you’ll be adding Charge Anytime to your OVO plan.

 

*Our smart tech will aim to charge your car at a time when the grid has more renewable energy in it. Meaning it’s less likely your EV will be charged by energy from fossil fuels.


253 replies

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I have just come across this Tariff online, rang OVO to discuss this and they have told me this is not live as yet and to fill in the interest form. Searching further I find this forum and people saying they are already on this Tariff? I am a little confused…. help please!

Userlevel 7
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Anytime is an Add-On which you can add to any tariff within MyOVO. You won’t find it on the Quote & Switch Tool.

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So why when I spoke to Customer Services did they say there was nothing as yet and the Anytime link just asks for you to register interest? Still confused…….

Userlevel 7
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Can you show me the link where you found it?

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Of Course….

Introducing Anytime | OVO Energy

 

also, OVO have just answered my whatsapp by saying ‘It May Be postcode dependent??’ I would like to think the Customer Service reps would know this?

 

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Can you show me the link where you found it?

Also here

 

Offers and Upgrades - OVO Energy

 

Userlevel 7
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Can you show me the link where you found it?

 

Userlevel 7

Hi @PG73, and thanks for posting this. 

 

I can clear this up. Anytime is an add on that’s existed for a while, as part of the OVO Drive plan. We’ve made some improvements to the add on, calling it Charge Anytime and unlocking eligibility to all plans, and we did a soft launch of it earlier this year.

 

Some people will be on the old Anytime, some will be on the Charge Anytime trial, and next week, unless delayed, we’ll be officially launching Charge Anytime. Not long to wait, we’ll be posting about it on the forum! This Anytime page will also redirect to the Charge Anytime page when it launches. 

 

*spoiler alert: it’s going to be a market leading EV charging plan!

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Tim, I have noted that this does not work with all EV's. Is this going to change? My EV that is on order is not listed in the Anytime list?

Userlevel 7

Is it this list of eligible cars and chargers, @PG73? What is your EV make and model?

 

And yes I’m told we’re constantly looking to open up the eligibility of this product to more EV models and chargers, so if you don’t see your tech here, keep an eye on that page. 

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I am awaiting delivery of an MG4. Which is not on the list. 

Why does this not include people with home batteries?

Are any V2H systems allowed?

What prevents PV owners having it?

I would be happy for it to be combined with higher import prices between 4pm and 7pm

Userlevel 7

Hi @Ringi and thanks for the questions. Do you have home storage? And solar? We like to add green tech badges that match the green tech in the homes of our forum members, so let me know and I’ll get your badges added to your forum profile. 

 

Charge Anytime is specific to electric vehicle (EV) charging. So not home battery systems. The technology behind Charge Anytime, powered by Kaluza Flex, has ambitions to cover all sorts of green tech. At the moment this is for EVs. 

 

Not being able to use Charge Anytime if you have solar is only temporary. There’s a few technical things that prevent Kaluza Flex from picking up the EV charging with solar around. But that should be sorted in the future. 

 

You’ll need to be an OVO customer to get the Charge Anytime add on. As we don’t offer a ‘vehicle to home’ (V2H) tariff, it’s not an option to have the two. 

 

Any other questions, let us know. 

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I have signed up to Charge Anytime today, accepted the opt in to meter readings every half hour, accepted the link up to Kaluza, got my email confirming I am good to go  - but how does it work? The email tells me all I need do is tell Ovo what time I want my charging to be completed by - how do I do this as there is no option on the Ovo Energy app or web portal, and nothing like this in my Ohme Pro app? The Ohme app is showing the new 10p rate, so it has presumably linked up ok to Ovo. I know this is very new but there is a complete lack of any meaningful information on how to use it. Any help in this regard appreciated

Don't have PV or Battery yet, but being able to charge a home battery at 10p per kwh would likely result in getting a heatpump and home batteries.   Once have home batteries then PV is much easier to justify.

 

Once have home batteries can used to prevent import between 4pm and 7pm and export if reward for doing so is high enough.

 

(Hope I am not forced to buy a EV to leave unused on my drive to get reasonable priced of peak electricity.)

Userlevel 7
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I have signed up to Charge Anytime today, accepted the opt in to meter readings every half hour, accepted the link up to Kaluza, got my email confirming I am good to go  - but how does it work? The email tells me all I need do is tell Ovo what time I want my charging to be completed by - how do I do this as there is no option on the Ovo Energy app or web portal, and nothing like this in my Ohme Pro app? The Ohme app is showing the new 10p rate, so it has presumably linked up ok to Ovo. I know this is very new but there is a complete lack of any meaningful information on how to use it. Any help in this regard appreciated

Anything useful in this @simong 

You post on that thread and tag some of the users there who are already using it. 

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I would also like to understand how we “tell Ovo what time we want the charging to be complete” please?  Is it the same Kaluza app that we use for the previous “anytime drive+” add on?  Will we be automatically moved across from the old “anytime drive+” option or do we have to opt in to the “charge anytime” rate, please?  If the transfer is automatic when will this be happening?  Thank you.

Userlevel 2
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I have signed up to Charge Anytime today, accepted the opt in to meter readings every half hour, accepted the link up to Kaluza, got my email confirming I am good to go  - but how does it work? The email tells me all I need do is tell Ovo what time I want my charging to be completed by - how do I do this as there is no option on the Ovo Energy app or web portal, and nothing like this in my Ohme Pro app? The Ohme app is showing the new 10p rate, so it has presumably linked up ok to Ovo. I know this is very new but there is a complete lack of any meaningful information on how to use it. Any help in this regard appreciated

Anything useful in this @simong 

You post on that thread and tag some of the users there who are already using it. 

 

Thanks, It sheds a little light in that my car does not support the DTV method (so can’t use Anytime app)  but I am still unsure where I am supposed to tell Ovo what time I want my car charged by. I have set a regular schedule in the Ohme Pro app, but not sure if this will utilise teh smart charging or not. Again, would be good to have some clarity from Ovo on exactly how this should work.

Userlevel 7

Hi @simong @KHebb, good questions and good feedback here. I’ll pass on feedback about a lack of instructional guidance after choosing the Charge Anytime add on. 

 

The Charge Anytime app is used for direct to vehicle (D2V) control. Where a customer has an eligible vehicle but does not have an eligible charger, they should use the D2V app. Where a customer has an eligible charger (regardless of whether or not their vehicle is eligible), they should use the charger app.


The difference between the two at the moment is that the D2V customer will see savings in their D2V app, whilst the charger customer can see savings in a page called “Your EV” in the My OVO account.


If a customer has an eligible charger and has downloaded the D2V app, they are likely to be setting schedules in multiple apps which will cause a conflict in commands being sent to charge the battery. As a result they may miss their ready by times and will probably not be able to reconcile their Charge Anytime credits.

 

 Is it the same Kaluza app that we use for the previous “anytime drive+” add on?  Will we be automatically moved across from the old “anytime drive+” option or do we have to opt in to the “charge anytime” rate, please?  If the transfer is automatic when will this be happening? 

 

Update on this one, @KHebb, you should've received an email in December/January letting you know the old Anytime app was being closed down and offering to move to the new one by 15th Feb. Did you get something like this?

 

Userlevel 2
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I have signed up to Charge Anytime today, accepted the opt in to meter readings every half hour, accepted the link up to Kaluza, got my email confirming I am good to go  - but how does it work? The email tells me all I need do is tell Ovo what time I want my charging to be completed by - how do I do this as there is no option on the Ovo Energy app or web portal, and nothing like this in my Ohme Pro app? The Ohme app is showing the new 10p rate, so it has presumably linked up ok to Ovo. I know this is very new but there is a complete lack of any meaningful information on how to use it. Any help in this regard appreciated

Same noob question here: I assume I just set the charging schedule in the Ohme app to 100% by a certain time and let Kaluza/Ovo work out the charging slots, but is this correct, and what happens if there aren’t enough ‘green energy’ charging slots to hit the required state of charge? And how is boost charging enabled? Maybe I’m overthinking it and it’ll just work (when my smart meter is eventually sending readings again).

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I set a schedule in my Ohme app to charge fully by 7am, every day if the week. Plugged in for the first time night and it looks promising (as per the pic). No idea what I do if I want immediate boost charging though. Will check the Ovo account in the morning to see what it has picked up  

 

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The time honoured Suck-it-and-see method - this is exactly what I have done - let us know how it works out please. I will be using for the first time tomorrow.

Userlevel 2
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I set a schedule in my Ohme app to charge fully by 7am, every day if the week. Plugged in for the first time night and it looks promising (as per the pic). No idea what I do if I want immediate boost charging though. Will check the Ovo account in the morning to see what it has picked up  

 

Well, charging started at 10pm and the car was fully charged by the target time of 7am, however nothing at all showing in my Ovo account under ‘Your EV’. It just says ‘Data for this month is missing’ for both February and March (as last nights charging cycle would have straddled both months). So don’t know if I have set it up wrong, the charger is not linking to Ovo correctly, or some other reason. Still no help from Ovo on how to use this properly feature!

 

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@Tim_OVO any guidance on recommended settings (Ohme Home Pro and Charge Anytime)?

Userlevel 7

 

 nothing at all showing in my Ovo account under ‘Your EV’. It just says ‘Data for this month is missing’ for both February and March (as last nights charging cycle would have straddled both months).

 

 

Hi @simong and thanks for flagging this one. 

 

This is likely an issue getting the data from Ohme. Please can you contact the OVO Smart Home team to raise this directly and we can look into it: smarthome@ovoenergy.com

 

any guidance on recommended settings (Ohme Home Pro and Charge Anytime)?

 

@Dark yes you’re able to set the ‘ready by’ time  and ‘% charged’ amount directly the Ohme app. We will do the rest to charge the car when the grid is at its greenest. 

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