MEZIESBLOG

Some Octopus Energy customers will be charged more for their electricity this week – and they were told less than two weeks ago. 

Households on the Intelligent Octopus Go and Octopus Go smart energy tariffs will pay more from 1 May. 

The tariffs offer cheap overnight electricity to allow customers with electric vehicles to charge them for less.

MoneySavingExpert reported that customers were told about the changes, which include standing charges going up by an average of 52p a month, on 20 April.

Octopus Energy told them that the increase in the off-peak unit rate was “due to ongoing volatility”, referring to the chaos caused by the Iran conflict. 

The company’s chief executive, Greg Jackson, said on X: “Whilst rises are painful and we work very hard to avoid them (you can look back and see very few over the years on these tariffs) – these tariffs are still very cheap – typical users on this tariff will have a blended rate of around 18.3p/kWh – around 20% below the price cap, and the more they charge their car the bigger the saving.” 

With customers raising questions with MoneySavingExpert’s Martin Lewis about the timings of the changes, Jackson said: “We aim for about two weeks – slightly less this time as we didn’t want to email over the weekend when there’d be less support available. 

“And perspective is important – an EV on these tariffs is about five to eight times cheaper per mile than a petrol car, despite the fact the UK has such high electricity prices.” 

A spokesperson for Octopus Energy added: “We’re delighted that hundreds of thousands of Intelligent Octopus Go customers remain on Britain’s cheapest standalone EV tariff, with many Octopus Go customers also charging up at 20% below the price cap.

“Before the war in the Middle East, customers on these tariffs saved over £860 a year on charging compared to filling a car with petrol; now it’s over £1,000 cheaper – one of the many tariffs that Octopus is delighted to be providing to help drive down the cost of energy, even in the current volatile period.”