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My theory is that the cost and supply of biomass to Drax powerstation has bumped up the cost of energy?
This time last year biomass was only used occasionally and since the coal fired option has stopped i reckon Drax and the network increased shipments of wood pellets from Canada (i think that is where the majority comes from) to bolster the stability of the energy grid?
At last! Some negative pricing 😀 
Our Electricity price is basically based on wholesale gas prices, the only occasion that electric price isn't based on gas prices is if we use zero gas to generate electricity. I don't think that ever happens or maybe it does occasionally, like during a big storm. So the key factor has been the rise in Gas wholesale ( it was around 70p/therm over the summer and peaked at 140p/therm in Feb25, it's now at 100p/therm and dropping ). So, it's that and all the factors influencing it (weather/demand, Russia/Ukraine, gas storage levels in Europe etc etc) plus what shakbait says about UK nuclear plants off line.
Trading Economics do a good summary, it all looks positive for Agile going forward, mild temps/reduced heating demand, Rus/Ukr ceasefire talks, return of 2 nuclear plants over this weekend.
I believe some reasons why this didn't happen last Jan-Feb was a)very mild winter b)Gas storage levels in Europe started the winter at 100% full (this winter they started at something like 70% full). Also I think Eastern European countries were still supplied by a Russian gas pipeline thru Ukraine, That stopped this January I think, putting more pressure on gas price this Jan-Mar.
Yep, super busy washing/tumble drying everything today, all the electric heaters and underfloor heating on 🥵
I don't think that ever happens or maybe it does occasionally, like during a big storm.
Well it does on days like today.... Plenty of solar and wind.
Well it does on days like today.... Plenty of solar and wind.
Still 8% coming from gas according to
Interesting.... We've still had hours of negative pricing yesterday and today!
All my hard work setting the timers for the heaters didn't pay off 😭. One timer was set to switch off at 0230 rather than 1430 so I've pointlessly wasted 1.5kw/h between 4pm and 530pm.
All my hard work setting the timers for the heaters didn't pay off 😭.
TBH I think you really need to automate stuff to really get the most out of Agile.
I have a Pi that checks the rate every 30.mins and then switches things on and off depending upon what I'm willing to pay.
(If the price is <0.1p then it switches everything on regardless) - this way it's simple to deal with those middle of the night price plunges.
Thankfully they are more likely to happen during the day now that solar is ramping up.
I'm right at the bottom of the automation learning curve. I need to improve my knowledge.
Smart plugs and app based timers I should be able to do with ease but I messed up the Govee timer by probably not saving the schedule that is altered.
Roll on the next attempt!
Peaker plants are mostly gas, so maybe the 8% was just in the 4-7pm window, outside that might have been 100% wind/solar/other. I don't know exactly how the pricing works, but I've definitely heard that it's all based on gas prices unless zero gas is used (possibly most recently from Greg Jackson pushing his zonal pricing plan)
Or maybe I'm mistaken and the pricing is just base on predicted mix. Yesterday at 10am when my prices were in negative the mix was
Wind producing 58.3%
Solar producing 13.2%
Nuclear producing 11%
Gas producing 6.1
Or maybe I'm mistaken and the pricing is just base on predicted mix.
It's based on auction prices:
Epex Auction
OE set the Agile price based on this o you can look ahead to the next days auction prices and get an idea of what the Agile prices will be.
Editing....
Only a 55p error with the heater. 
Currently -6p and negative until 4pm
Yep, I'm using my heaters at the moment. Car only needed 8kw to fill the battery this morning so the rest of my negative pricing is going towards reducing my weekly bill. Hopefully I'll knock a couple of quid off? It's possible I might beat my previous effort of a £2.70 reduction. I'll report back tomorrow.
122kwh consumed during negative pricing. Maybe £3 - 4 quid off my bill 🤔
Tomorrow looking cheap, but no negative so I won't be heating up the house.
Any updates to share from the folks that are using automation with Agile Octopus? I'm not there yet but found the Agile Predict very useful. Tonight and tomorrow night look particularly cheap but then overnight shoots up quite a bit for the next 10 nights
I haven't automated any of my devices, yet. Might happen next year if I put some effort into it.
I'll keep manually programming my tapo smart plugs and a couple of smart heaters in the meantime.
Any updates to share from the folks that are using automation with Agile Octopus?
It's been fairly good over the last couple of weeks... Although I generally only consider good to be <2p/kWh.
I have various stuff automated using aa RasPinthT checks them price every 30 minutes and switches things on and off accordingly.
Also using Shelly relays more and more as they're just more reliable than Tapo switches which I've also got bit find has a tendency to switch on remotely but then not switch off which is not a good thing!
Big bank holiday electricity sale tomorrow!
I'll probably earn £5, which should pay for 1 typical weeks use.
-12p/kWh .... Don't think I've ever seen it that low!
We're at our other place which is all electric heating and it's very warm here!!
I'm up too 77kw used, so far earning £2.77. Could be better but I'm not at home 😲
My results are in!
Not the highest consumption I've ever had but double the biggest £ return that I have previously had.
Just shy of making £10 today. 190 kWh used. Might make £3 tomorrow 🤔
My Octopus energy monitor tells me I've used £82 of electricity this week - but it's actually cost me 13.29p!!
Octopus energy monitor
I'll check mine later. I rarely look at it now that I have got a octopus mini for live data on the app.
I managed to make £3 on Sunday.
Over 500kw used so far this month and £11 in profit!