Charging your car with cheap, green electricity
Within the next ten years the UK will be home to over a million electric vehicles, and slowly, the world’s getting ready for that. It’ll mean beefing up the charging infrastructure massively, more affordable EV models, speedier charging, more government incentives to go electric, and a watertight strategy to ensure the grid can cope with the high energy demands of an electrified transport network.
We’re starting things off in energy with a few industry-leading smart tariffs, especially designed so drivers like you can charge up cheap on abundant green energy.
Octopus Go
- Charge super cheaply for four hours every night
- Pair with a smart charger so your car automatically charges when the night rate kicks in
- 100% renewable electricity 💚
To find out more and sign up for cheap, green charging...
This tariff offers a super cheap 12p / kWh rate for four hours every night (between 12.30 and 4.30am), meaning you can fully charge up while you’re asleep, and keep your fuel costs super low.
What are my "peak" daytime prices and standing charge?
Octopus Go’s “peak” rate (the 20 hours around 4.30am and 12.30am) varies a little depending on where you are in the UK.
Get a quote based on your postcode here — just search for Go in our list of current tariffs once you’ve entered your details.
Go Charging
Octopus Electric Vehicles partners with the experts behind some of the most innovative smart chargers on the market. Plug your car in before bed, and your charger will only start to charge when the cheap 12p / kWh price kicks in.
Interested in a smart charger? The Octopus EV team can sort you out. Head to their site for more information, or to get in touch with their team, email hello@octopusev.com.
Want to join Go? You’ll need to:
- Sign up to join Go here– whether you're already a customer of ours or not.
- Have a smart meter we can take half-hourly readings from (either a SMETS2 one or a Secure SMETS1 one).
Don't have a smart meter yet? No worries – get in touch and we'll install one for you. Here's a load more information about getting a smart meter with Octopus, too.
Agile Octopus
- Your electricity prices change every half an hour based on wholesale energy prices, typically giving you access to super-cheap energy overnight and any time there’s high generation + low demand
- Get the next day’s energy prices via text every day at 4pm, so you can plan ahead
- Pair Agile with free app integrations and smart home tech, so you can use the cheapest, greenest energy without even thinking about it
- 100% renewable — and helping move us towards a low carbon future
Or read our Agile report for results from early customers.
We wrote this report when we first released Agile Octopus, so the cap, rates and standing charges mentioned have now been updated to reflect market changes
How does it work?
Agile’s cutting-edge pricing is a first look at how we can reduce strain on the UK grid by helping customers use energy out of peak demand times each day.
Crucially, it encourages customers to use power when there’s plenty of renewable energy being produced that might otherwise go to waste. This tariff will save you money, but it’s designed for people who are able to move their energy usage out of 4pm-7pm, when energy prices go high.
Wholesale energy is priced in half-hourly blocks. On Agile, your unit price changes every half an hour based on the wholesale price we buy it for. At 4pm every day, we’ll text you the next day’s half-hourly prices, so you can plan ahead and charge during the cheapest times.
How does dynamic pricing help me save money and the UK carbon?
When there’s a lot of renewable energy being produced in the UK, and low demand for it, wholesale energy gets really cheap. Agile Octopus offers the first opportunity for customers to really reap the benefits of this.
There are certain times or day (like overnight, on a sunny afternoon, or a windy morning) when there’s plenty of wind or solar power, and no one around to use it. When supply outstrips demand, Agile prices drop. This goes even further with “plunge pricing” – if energy prices drop below 0p / kWh (which does actually happen from time to time), we pay you to use energy. WE pay YOU.
You can charge your car up using energy far cheaper than any standard fixed price on the market, and do so using clean, low-carbon power that might otherwise go to waste.
What happens to the price during peak times, when there’s high demand for energy on the grid?
Agile prices are really cheap 21 hours out of the day, but pricing during peak times (between 4 and 7 pm each day) is really high. Rates are capped at 100p / kWh. Agile encourages more flexibility in energy consumption — but it might not be the tariff for you if you have to use energy regularly during that evening peak. Our recent report on Agile customers suggests average savings of between £170 and £229 on an average large legacy supplier's standard tariff.
We wrote this report when we first released Agile Octopus, so the cap, rates and standing charges mentioned have now been updated to reflect market changes
What if you don’t want to wake up at 4am to turn your charger on when prices are low?
Agile can be paired with smart home tech if you’re not always around (or, likely, awake) to switch your charger on when energy’s cheap.
We’ve integrated Agile Octopus with If This Then That, or IFTTT, a free, user-friendly app that lets you connect different home appliances and programme them via particular triggers. You can easily programme your charger to come on when energy prices drop below a certain level (or stop charging if prices creep past a pre-set threshold).
We’ve even made our Agile API public so you can have a play around yourself, programming your own money- and carbon-saving tech solutions. Our customers all have their own API key, which you can find on your online account under ‘account preferences’.
Want to join Agile? If you want to get on the forefront of smart energy, you’ll need to:
- Sign up to join Go here– whether you're already a customer of ours or not.
- Have a smart meter we can take half-hourly readings from (either a SMETS2 one or a Secure SMETS1 one).
Don't have a smart meter yet? No worries – we'll install one for you. Here's a load more information about getting a smart meter with Octopus, too.
Not a customer of ours yet?
We see a future of clean energy supported by great technology. It goes without saying therefore, that we totally see EVs as the future of mobility. We’re constantly looking to innovate to provide the best solutions of electric vehicle drivers; be that tariffs, chargers, or vehicles. If you think there’s something else we could do, or something we’re missing, please drop us a line at hello@octopusev.com.
Published on 16th February 2019 by:
Hey I'm Constantine, welcome to Octopus Energy!
×Close window