We noticed that some customers' EV charging doesn’t always fully follow our Intelligent Octopus smart charging instructions. This can happen if another app is accessing their EV or charger to set instructions too. Luckily, it’s easy to fix.
1. Who else could be accessing my charging?
You may have signed up for rewards or smart features in your charger’s software or in your car manufacturer’s app, and possibly not even realised. A dead giveaway is if you’re receiving a monthly credit from another provider in exchange for letting them manage your charging. These rewards are actually part of smart charging programmes that can cause clashes with Intelligent Octopus smart charging.
To fix it, you’ll just need to opt out of any third-party apps’ rewards or ‘smart’ programmes, and we’ll be able to keep your charging on track and avoid any clashes.
2. Why do I need to switch off third party apps to give Octopus full control of charging?
Without getting too techy, we’re keen to avoid a ‘too many cooks’ situation. With other apps involved, we can’t register you properly for national and local grid balancing schemes, which is how we generate the money that we turn into savings on your bill. Other apps can also add clashing charging times that don’t line up with ours, which means your car may not be fully charged when you need it. That’s no good, so we’re keen to avoid that from happening.
3. What if I don't want to switch off third party apps?
That’s not a problem but just so you know, you can’t be on Intelligent Octopus Go at the same time.
4. Why do you need to register my EV charging?
Our Intelligent Octopus tariffs help support the grid by smart charging your EV at the greenest and cheapest times possible. One of the ways we do this is by registering your EV charging so the grid knows what’s happening, and can ask us to charge (or not charge) at certain times. This way, we can avoid peak times and help make the best use of renewables.
By letting us manage your EV charging, you’re essentially acting as a mini power station for the grid. In exchange for this, we receive payments that we pass directly back to you through ultra-low charging rates on the tariff.