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Introducing Charge Anytime - next generation EV charging

Introducing Charge Anytime - next generation EV charging
Tim_OVO
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Updated on 15/01/24 by Emmanuelle_OVO:

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 7p 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.

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6

356 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!

Blastoise186
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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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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?

Tim_OVO
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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. 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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I am awaiting delivery of an MG4. Which is not on the list. 

S
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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

Jeffus
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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. 

K
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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.

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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.

Tim_OVO
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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?

 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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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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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)?

Tim_OVO
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 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. 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
Jeffus
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@Tim_OVO do you know if OVO have given any consideration to a tariff like Octopus Go that doesn't require a specific charger or car?

 

 

Tim_OVO
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@Jeffus I know that OVO’s EV approach is type of use, rather than a time of use plan such as Octopus Go. 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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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!

 

I gave mine its first Smart Charge to 100% overnight scheduled via the Ohme Home Pro app. Charged successfully and the Ohme app shows it consumed 12.9 kWh (it was already at around 84% when I plugged in).

I get the same error in the Ovo app as you (Data for this month is missing) together with a strange calculation for the Charge Anytime credit which it has worked out as £0.07 because Ovo thinks I’ve only used 0.27 kWh instead of the 12.9 kWh that Ohme says I’ve consumed. By my reckoning the credit should be (0.34 - 0.1) x 12.9 =  £3.10. I did not have preconditioning enabled, which I know can set the Ohme to max charge at the end of the charging period.

I’ve mailed the smart home team but no response so far.

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@Tim_OVO I had an Indra Smart+ installed when they were new to the market back in 2019 - is this charger supported? I see ‘Smart Pro’ and ‘Smart Charger v3’ are supported; are these the same units just rebranded?

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I’m currently with British Gas and looking to switch to ovo. I have 2 ev’s with a home pod point charger. Would this charger be compatible?

Blastoise186
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Howdy @Rafster1882 !

I’m afraid Pod Point chargers aren’t currently compatible with Charge Anytime. However, your EV’s might be.

Please can you tell me the make and model for both of them?

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We have a bmw ix3 and a txe London taxi which is basically a Volvo x40

Blastoise186
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Thanks!

Your BMW iX3 is compatible via Direct-To-Vehicle Mode. You’ll be good to go with this EV.

Your taxi however, is an edge case. I’d suggest pinging an email to smarthome@ovoenergy.com for to check compatibility that EV.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Tim_OVO
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Good to hear, @philjwilson!

 

@Biblu we can confirm that the Indra Smart+ chargert is compatible with Charge Anytime, it's also referred to as the Indra Smart Charger V3 internally - apologies for the confusion caused!

 

If you're on supply with another energy supplier currently, you'd be looking at the lead times below from sign up, to having Charge Anytime up and running:

  • Switching to OVO Energy via https://switch.ovoenergy.com/ takes between 1 working day and 29 calendar days
  • Unlocking of the OVO Energy account in full takes 7 to 42 calendar days from the supply switch date
  • Charge Anytime is able to be applied via https://account.ovoenergy.com/anytime/eligibility once the OVO Energy account is fully unlocked
  • The only other thing for you to make sure of is that you have a smart meter installed for your electric supply
Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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Hi - Any idea if the Zappi chargers will be supported? I got the invite to join the scheme but the page above just tells me ‘bolt on not available’ when i try and check eligibility of kit etc.

Thanks for any help, would love to charge the EV cheaper overnight :)

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