Octopus Energy FITs and Export

[JohnS]

Hi everyone, I need to pick your brains.

I am now on the Octopus Go tariff, giving me 4 hours in the early morning at 5p per hour which I use to charge my PHEV when needed (not everyday) plus some time shifting of the washing machine (on spin hold) especially for hot washes.  Unfortunately my oldish Miele dishwasher does not have a delayed start option.

I want to transfer my FIT contract to Octopus.  At present I am with Npower and they are going to move my FIT to EON in Q1 2021.  If it is going to move anyway, I might as well move it to Octopus.

My understanding is that you cannot combine Octopus Outgoing with Octopus Go.  Does anyone know if I can transfer to the FIT Octopus and keep the deemed export tariff?  I see little merit in Octopus Agile as my PV generation is not sufficient to go down the storage route.

[nowty]

Of course you can, you would be moving over on standard FIT terms, you only lose the deemed export if you opt out of it.

[brackwell]

I believe you can keep your FITS as is if you go on standard tariff but have to give it up if you go onto Go or Agile and go onto export tariff.  Why you asking here rather than Octopus themselves.

[john999boy]

As a non EV user (at the moment) but with a separate export meter, I'm watching with interest and wonder if Octupus would benefit me in the future?

[JohnS]

Thanks everyone.

I had an unsatisfactory telephone conversation with Octopus.  The call handler didn't really know about whether Octopus could process a FIT contract with deemed export instead of measured export.

At his suggestion, I emailed the Small Export Guarantee team who deal with FITs and export payments.  I am still awaiting a reply three working days later.

Although I benefit from deemed export, especially as I have a solar immersion, I would accept being on measured export as I could heat my hot water during the GO tariff cheap period.

[greentangerine]

I've been with eon for FiT since my system was installed in Jan 2010.   

Their system has improved over the years but TBH I've never had any problems and these days I just submit the reading on their website and it appears in my bank account within the week.

I wouldn't worry about being moved to them.

(I'm with Octopus Go now following a period with Scottish Power after eon - never had the desire nor need to move the FiT - just seemed something that might go wrong somehow)

[burble61]

Thanks everyone.

I had an unsatisfactory telephone conversation with Octopus.  The call handler didn't really know about whether Octopus could process a FIT contract with deemed export instead of measured export.

At his suggestion, I emailed the Small Export Guarantee team who deal with FITs and export payments.  I am still awaiting a reply three working days later.

Although I benefit from deemed export, especially as I have a solar immersion, I would accept being on measured export as I could heat my hot water during the GO tariff cheap period.

I think its true to say that with a combination of C-19 and the increase in customer numbers, Octopus are not responding as well as they had in the past. Hopefully normal service will be resumed in due course....

I went through a similar scenario. My learning...

- a straightforward transfer of the FITS licencee you use is entirely possible. Once the forms are sent in, Octopus will contact you a while after for the "handover" reading at which point responsibility for payment changes.

- re the deemed export - unless anything else has changed, as others have pointed out, a like for like transfer should not pose problems.

- re "Outgoing Octopus" - yes you are correct, if you want this, you need to be on a "standard" tariff or Agile - but not Go or Go Faster - Octopus state that this is due to the way the business model & tariff design for Go/Go Faster work. Not sure about the Tracker variants.

only slight frustration I had was getting the payment from the last submission to the handover payment out of SSE - oddly some new requirements emerged when I chased them! Also, the Octopus FITS payment system works on a fixed schedule, so the period between handover payment and first request from them for a reading can be longer than a quarter.


I didn't get to the bottom of the situation re existing (metered) export payments - mainly as the problem went away when we had a smart meter installed, but the export MPAN wasn't retained. I'd have quite happily stayed with SSE as their admin was fine, but they were very difficult about the situation with a Powerwall installed, which wasn't an issue for Octopus.

HTH

[JohnS]

Thanks GT and Burble,

I shall give Octopus a few more days to get back to me.  I hope that their customer service will remain up to the job.  They are advertising hard for new customers so obviously expect to be able to cope.

As you suggest, there is no real need to move the FIT to Octopus. 

John

[Iain]

Hi HTH

SSE as their admin was fine, but they were very difficult about the situation with a Powerwall installed, which wasn't an issue for Octopus.

Why and how did the suppliers get involved and why do they need to know?

Iain