Octopus IOG changes - any impact to Predbat?

[pacemaker82]

IOG users are getting this email last 24 hours:

Here's the nuts and bolts:

• Intelligent Octopus Go customers will still receive 6 hours of off-peak electricity for your whole home every night
• You'll also receive up to 6 hours of discounted smart charging every 24 hours – these may be during the 6 hours of off-peak, outside those times, or a mix of both
• Regardless of when the 6 hours of smart charging are scheduled, the electricity for your whole home will also be at the discounted rates
• If we need to schedule more than 6 hours to reach your target charge, only the first 6 hours of charging will be at the discounted rate – extra half-hours will be charged at your Boost rate

There is quite excitable debate online about what this actually means. Many read it as 6 hours (23:30-05:30) PLUS another 6 hours of charging. However others are saying, its 6 hours charging within 24 hour period, any other charging above that will be charged at higher rate. Its a terribly worded email leaving a lot to interpretation.

Phil from Octopus later said :

You’ve got 6 hours for the house off-peak overnight. You might get up to 12 more half-hours allocated too when we set a schedule for the car (not boost). If there’s car charging above a total of 6 hours then just the car charging (not the house) is at the high rate.

Which seems to clear things up... yet still many are interpreting this as 6 + 6 hours of total car charging. It needs clarifying but it seems to me "If there’s car charging above a total of 6 hours then just the car charging (not the house) is at the high rate." means there is only 6 hours of charging allowed within 24 hours.

My question is about Predbat and how this might impact it, and what detail might come through the octopus api in order to understand if you're in boost rate or not. I certainly dont want my battery to charge on the high rate between 05:30 and 23:30 if Octopus decide a slot is not cheap car rate within that timeframe. I am hoping at least on the predbat side it will just take care of it as their API will say the rate is 29.63p even though car is charging.

[pacemaker82]

Seems like there has been additional updates online that point to 6 hours only charging:

Hi Sarah, yep you’ve got it. Just on that last point if you’ve already done 6 hours charging and then more happens during the off-peak period even though the house still has the low rate the car charging will be at the boost rate.

So definitely want to make sure Predbat doesnt charge the battery if car charging is in boost rate (and outside of cheap window). And how it figures out dual rates? ... 7p for house, 29.63p for car in a 30-min slot.

[raldred]

Got a reply from Phil on twitter, seems as though they staff are not completely clear on the rules either.

Just to clarify the house gets the 6 hour period overnight always. If the car is scheduled during the day then you still also get that cheap rate for the house too.

https://x.com/agile_phil/status/1996927127330214010?s=20

[raldred]

Seems as though @springfall2008 has everything under control as usual. 🙏

#3022

[pacemaker82]

hmmm would love to know how Trefor plans to limit to 6 hours only via Predbat. Adjusting the target % dynamically @springfall2008 ?

[raldred]

Looking at the implementation, it will only consider the first 6 hours to be at discounted rate. So that will influence predbat to ignore any boost rate slots for charging, since they won't be cost effective, since predbat is always optimising for overall cost throughout the day.

[pacemaker82]

interesting ... ok I'll see if I can understand what he's doing because

1. "First 6 hours" within what timeframe, i.e. reset at midnight or mid-day?
2. Its not about slots its about time. You get 6 hours of charging, some of that could be across multiple slots (more than 12 x 6 hour slots ultimately)