Posted 2 days ago
Octopus Tracker tariff is changing - February 15 2024
Emails are being sent out.
Tracker is going up in price.
Quote
"In December 2023, we updated Tracker's daily price formula and standing charge for new customers. We held this change off for existing customers, keeping your prices lower for longer, but from 15th February, we'll need to update your prices too.
End quote
Tracker is going up in price.
Quote
"In December 2023, we updated Tracker's daily price formula and standing charge for new customers. We held this change off for existing customers, keeping your prices lower for longer, but from 15th February, we'll need to update your prices too.
You don't need to do anything: we'll move you automatically to the new version of Tracker.
Tracker remains one of the best-value tariffs on the market - in December and January, the updated rates have typically been nearly 40% cheaper than Flexible Octopus
Because of how Ofgem's price cap works, Tracker is becoming a 'fixed term' tariff. Your unit prices still change daily but your unit price formula and standing charge will be fixed for 12 months.
We've updated Tracker's T&Cs to reflect these changes - review the new terms here
Dear ???????
Thanks for choosing Octopus Tracker, Britain's fairest energy tariff. I wanted to let you know about a few changes we're making to keep it current with UK energy regulation and the cost of supply.
You don't need to do anything: we'll move you straight onto the new version of the tariff on Thursday 15th February. If you ever want to, you're free to move to another tariff or supplier without penalty.
We've broken down the changes to Tracker, and what they mean for you, below.
Tracker's daily unit price formula
We've updated the formula that sets your daily unit prices for the first time in years to more closely reflect our real cost of supplying your energy.
What does it mean for you?
Changes to the formula will mean on average, daily electricity rates are generally around 2.3 p/kWh higher and gas rates around 0.38 p/kWh higher.
Tracker is still incredibly good value: one of the UK's cheapest tariffs. In December and January, the updated Tracker electricity rates were typically 37% cheaper than our standard variable tariff Flexible Octopus, and gas rates, 40% cheaper.
Why is this changing?
To set the Tracker unit price each day, the formula takes the UK's daily wholesale price and adds a set cost to cover our cost to supply energy to you, excluding wholesale costs - things like transmission, distribution and meter rental.
It's been a good few years since the daily formula was updated. Since then, a lot has changed in energy - including a once-in-a-generation energy crisis and regulatory changes. A number of costs have slowly crept upwards.
We've been shouldering the extra cost for customers ever since, meaning you've had a particularly great deal. We held off updating this for as long as possible, but ultimately, Tracker was designed to transparently reflect real-time energy costs. We changed the formula for new customers in December 2023, but held off a few months extra for existing customers like yourself.
You can see the mix of costs that make up the Tracker unit price before and after.
You can find more information, as well as the formula for your area before and after the changes on our blog.
Your standing charge is changing
We're also updating the standing charge to match our other tariffs. It's an increase, but still the lowest standing charge of any large supplier, 4% below the price cap.
You can find a specific breakdown of your current and new standing charge in the PDF attached to this email.
Tracker is moving from 'evergreen' to 'fixed term'
What does it mean for me?
Your unit prices still change daily but your unit price formula and standing charge, will be fixed for 12 months.
At the end of your fixed term, we'll email you with all your options - you'll be able to renew on the latest version of Tracker, choose another tariff or roll onto Flexible Octopus.
You can leave Tracker at any time without fees by changing tariffs in your account. If you leave Tracker, you can't rejoin the tariff for another 9 months.
We've updated Tracker's T&Cs to reflect these changes - review the new terms here
The Energy Price Cap is a welcome protection for customers on default tariffs, historically saving UK households billions. The price cap applies to all variable tariffs, but innovative products like Tracker don't fit well with the regulation. We're talking to Ofgem in the hopes of changing this, but under current rules, neither Tracker or Agile can be variable tariffs without significant changes.
Love and power,
Pete Miller
Head of Customer Experience
P.S. We're building something pretty cool, and I thought you might like to try it out. It's an energy 'weather report' so you can look out for greener (and cheaper) days coming up in the week ahead. Check the Greener Days forecast."
End quote
Community Updates
40 Comments
sorted byMaybe im missing something, also i cant find anything for the new costs, have they not released the new formula for the daily cost calculation?
Standing charge is a joke too, im sure i read something a few months back about ofgem or the government looking to lower standing charges as they're making astronomical profits and now they're raising them more.
For some small households and elderly, a large percentage of the bill will be the standing charge
Very dissapointed that Octopus has made this change but on the positive side they were the only one in the market prepared to offer it and I they have saved me a lot of money.
For Feb & March 24, I'm hoping the change in formula will still result in a 25% saving. Still big money!
From April however, when the Price Cap is predicted to reduce by 14%, the saving I'm expecting over Price Cap will drop to just over 10%. Good but not great given the potential downside!
Given the inevitable fluctuations that the Tracker will experience day by day (that the Price Cap only experiences every 3 months) I suspect there will be a lot of people starting to get nervous from April if for 2 or 3 days in a row the Tracker rates exceed the Price Cap.
I think we will see a lot of debate on this subject over the coming months. Just remember what you've saved so far and remember you'll have to wait 9 months to get back onto the Tracker if you do decide to leave just based on a short term blip.
Basically the government is increasing green tariffs, so they have to pass that on. Still the cheapest out there for now, but will be increasing my vigilance and monitoring the situation more closely than i have for the past 6 months.
The formula I signed up to, was set by Octopus in November 2022, and has now increased by 20%. They almost seem to be blaming Ofgem for the increase. Kudos to Octopus for bearing the brunt of the loss making tarrif.
It's an 11% increase in electricity and 8% for gas. Works out around £8 per month extra for us. Saved around £900 in the last year so I'm still staying with it
Whose is cheaper? Anyone know?
I am thinking of joining tracker and thought can always leave if more expensive. I am aware that I can’t join for the next 9 months.
Any thoughts?
Standing charge is increasing from 47.502p to 52.311p
Gas 26.838 to 27.468
The other problem - our gas meter is in a very difficult location, so not easy to switch it to a smart meter. Two attempts made, and given up. I will have to check with Octopus if their database has this as these attempts were done with Eon. (edited)
We haven't currently got a smart meter, so will need to contact Octopus at some point to either have one fitted, or switch tariffs / providers when the now 'fixed term' ends next February.
We have panels but they don't make a meaningful difference (12 x old/small and in a valley) . We have EVs but quite small (8yr old phEV is now 5.3kw usable, motorbike is 3.6kw usable). Couldn't calc a reasonable payback period on adding a battery. WFH and don't really want to consume myself running appliances at midnight.
I think originally it had to be tracker for electric and gas. Or Agile for elec and flexible for gas.
If you take Cornwall as gospel then the tracker should still be 10/20% cheaper. Better than any other alternatives available. I'm not interested in Agile as it's not worth fighting the family on when they can use the electric