Solving Smart-Tech Hiccups

The very cheapest, greenest, energy

constantine fixing a solar panel

Our smart tariffs give you access to extremely cheap and green energy. Yet it’s important to remember that these are beta products - we’re trying things that have never been done before and that will occasionally mean little hiccups. It’s an inevitable trade-off as we work together to push the boundaries of the green energy revolution.

Clever tariffs; complex tariffs

An image of an intelligent Octopus Car charging

Under the hood, all our smart tariffs are incredibly complex. Our boffins do a lot of hard work to keep all that complexity under the hood, but every once in a while, it does bubble up to the surface. Take Intelligent Octopus, for example. IO charges cars with the cheapest, greenest energy available, but it also means connecting to a vast array of different operating systems (just as there are Apple and Android operating systems for phones).

Each operating system has its own intricacies that we have to account for. When something goes wrong, in the vast majority of cases, it may be something as simple as a third party - a car manufacturer, for example - having made a change to an API and not telling us. We’re working hard with manufacturers to regularise these processes and fix these issues, but it can sometimes take a moment.

We’ve got lots of clever people working very hard to fix things when they go wrong

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Issues with smart tariffs are generally incredibly rare and we work as fast as we can to resolve them, but every once in a blue moon, it may require a little patience on your end. Most of the time these issues are just blips, and fortunately we’ve got a nifty team of experts who are good at picking them up and trialling a whole. Please reach out to us directly if something doesn’t look right, and you can always switch to another tariff in the meantime.

What if my setup clashes with my smart tariff?

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We design our smart products to be as broadly beneficial as possible, but given their inherent complexity, it’s good to be aware that sometimes our smart tariffs and other technologies won’t be designed to fit your exact setup, especially if you’ve done something especially niche.

Please do reach out if you think your setup could be made more compatible. We’ll do what we can to work with you - after all working on these edge-cases together can help push those boundaries of energy further.

Getting in touch about smart-tech issues

Our teams work tirelessly, often on early-stage loss-making products that we put out to empower you to play a greater role in the green energy transformation; rewarding you in the process. These whip-smart humans pitch in to respond to the lion’s share of peoples issues, flagging them on social media, chat rooms, and emails alike. They treasure constructive feedback, but please do try to be mindful about undermining their confidence, and any others who are thinking of getting involved and driving the renewables revolution.

As well as resources, our teams invest a huge amount of time and passion into building and running these ambitious, early-stage projects - seeing people get unnecessarily angry about products we didn’t have to make, or those that we give out for free, can take the wind out of our sails. If you do have a smart tariff issue please do contact us directly!

Published on 13th September 2023 by:

image of Rebecca Dibb-Simkin

Rebecca Dibb-Simkin

Director of Product and Marketing

Hey I'm Constantine, welcome to Octopus Energy!

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