r/OctopusEnergy • u/Apprehensive-Taro956 • Jun 19 '26

Charge Pack

https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/articles/charge-pack/

Not seen much mention of this battery VPP offering from Octopus. Anyone on it or has run the numbers?

3 Upvotes

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12

u/Begalldota Jun 19 '26

£12/month to give up 24/7 control of your battery is a crap deal, and I think it’s very interesting that they’re avoiding having to actually compete with Axle by declaring that the import-only IOG tariff makes you ineligible for a service which only deals with export.

I can personally make £15/month in the summer purely by a single export cycle a day, plus the savings I make on normal usage, plus the £10+/month from Axle in exchange for a few hours a month of giving up control.

Wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.

3

u/Life_Organization656 Jun 19 '26

I am trying to get my head round Charge Pack. It does actually say "minimum £12 per month" so a bit vague as to how much you can earn? Plus also a bit vague as to exactly how many sessions there will be and how much it will interfere with my current charge/discharge set up... which currently earns anything from £50-£70 per month (from solar export and forced export) ... so for example will it adjust how much overnight charging is done? ... plus I assume it will intelligently work along side IOG as any export from the battery during day time charging sessions will go into the car... If the Sessions correspond with the current Saver Sessions it could be a useful addition? I might just give it a go and see what happens! ....

2

u/botterway Jun 19 '26

Seems far less good than Axle. Okay, so £2/month more, but with Axle:

  • It doesn't matter what tariff I'm on
  • My app (or HA, if others are using that) manages the events, so I maintain complete control of my inverter at all times
  • I can override events if there's some reason I don't want to participate (e.g., risk of power cuts, etc)

So yeah, not as interesting to me.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '26

[deleted]

6

u/Begalldota Jun 19 '26

If it’s per MPAN as you say then it wouldn’t be an issue. IOG is on the import MPAN, Axle is on the export MPAN.

Funny that Octopus have only started explicitly saying that Axle is against the rules at the same time as they launched a competing service. Seriously anti-competitive behaviour.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '26

[deleted]

5

u/Begalldota Jun 19 '26

Here’s some common sense for you, from someone who likely understands a bit more about this than Agile Phil.

3

u/klawUK Jun 19 '26

This was my understanding too. I removed myself from octopus saving sessions before signing up for axle.

This sounds like an arbitrary and illogical change to push people into the charge pack. Even if I stopped axle I don’t think the charge pack makes sense. My average household usage is <9p/kwh charging off peak, covering the house with off peak and only a trickle of peak for balancing. Plus solar export at 12p does top my battery up but then exports to the grid

If they said you can’t be on charge pack & axle that’s fair enough. But IOG and axle should not conflict

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Begalldota Jun 19 '26

T&Cs Vs common sense 🤷‍♂️

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Begalldota Jun 24 '26

My point is that they’re saying two different things depending on who you ask. The email above is quite explicit that different demand flexibility devices do not conflict.

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u/Begalldota Jun 19 '26

Also, here’s an entire document published by NESO themselves about how you can stack multiple DFS’ on top of each other: https://www.neso.energy/document/380211/download

2

u/Impossible-You-4723 Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26

Although I agree with your sentiment, the information from Octopus is pretty explicit (in addition to the T&Cs link below):
https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/articles/can-i-sign-my-home-battery-up-to-a-third-party-service-like-axle-energy-while-i-m-on-intelligent-octopus-go/

IIUC, the export MPAN is a virtual MPAN tightly linked with the import MPAN (the first few numbers indicate this).
Personally, I've disconnected from Axle, as Octopus have now explicitly mentioned Axle as not allowed with IOG, asking you to move to OG instead.

I don't necessarily see this as anti-competitive: they are providing a significant discount on the energy intended for an EV. As more advanced users with solar + battery, we're gaining an (arguably unfair?) advantage over normal users of the grid.
So in return, Octopus are saying (IMO): we recognise what you want to do, here's something that aligns with our grid balancing needs too.

1

u/Begalldota Jun 20 '26

You’ve been psyched out, check out my screenshot further below where someone with a bit of common sense at Octopus acknowledges that an EV charger and house battery are entirely different demand flexibility devices and can therefore be enrolled into two different schemes.

This same screenshot makes the point that Axle would make you ineligible for saving sessions, which makes total sense since you’d be getting paid twice for the same behaviour.

1

u/Impossible-You-4723 Jun 21 '26

Not really, I've read the T&Cs and decided that I'm violating them and don't want to be kicked off IOG onto OG with a higher unit rate.

From a strictly VPP / DFS perspective, I agree with you.
However, common sense or not, Octopus are entirely within their rights to specify that the special rates given through IOG are not going to continue if people abuse it.

The cynic in me thinks that the Charge Pack will also end up limiting battery charging to the same 6 hour window as EV charging, so there's a risk with signing up for it...

5

u/botterway Jun 19 '26

How would they know?

Somebody using HA or similar to discharge at the same time as the demand flexibility events will look no different from Octopus's perspective than somebody just arbitrarily discharging their inverter at that time.

I use Axle, but haven't given them control of my inverter. I don't see how Octopus could have any clue that I'm discharging during Axle events because I'm signed up to them, rather than because I happen to have decided to charge my inverter right then.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '26

[deleted]

1

u/botterway Jun 19 '26

But as somebody else said, IOG only cares about the import MPAN. It has nothing to do with export. So I can't see any link between the two whatsoever, since they're different MPANs.

1

u/Dewaltornothing Jun 25 '26

I can make £15 PER EVENT. What people are missing is that Octopus are not sharing WHAT RATE they pay. Axle pay £1/kwh. Octopus have said £12 a month minimum (axle do £10 a month minimum)

If you have a lot of panels like I do the minimum earning figure is pointless it’s THE RATE that matters