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The UK has smart energy meters for a lot of customers. Octopus are an energy supplier which is using them to great effect for data nerds and people who want to

The UK has smart energy meters for a lot of customers. Octopus are an energy supplier which is using them to great effect for data nerds and people who want to save money. To get the data out, you can just call their API to get daily consuption figures, split into half hourly blocks[0]. They also allow you to just download a CVS file directly from the energy use section of their website. The data in the API is only update daily, but they can give you a tiny addon device[1] for free which will allow you to access live usage in realtime (updates ever 10 seconds I think). I use a Home Assistant integration to collect all this data live there. To make use of the smart meter, they also have a series of tarrifs which change price dynamically. The simplist is Tracker[2] which charges you a different price per unit every day based on the wholesale price. There's also Agile[3] which is the same concept but the price changes every 30 minutes with higher highs and lower lows. That one is great if you can shift your energy usage outside of peak times. They also have "intelligent" tarrifs where you allow them to control your car charger[4] or home battery[5] so it charges when it's cheapest. Octopus are doing really great things in the UK and part of their business is that they sell the backend as a service to other energy companies who were previously stuck in the stone age as Kraken[6]. [0] https://developer.octopus.energy/docs/api/ https://developer.octopus.energy/docs/api/ [1] https://octopus.energy/blog/octopus-home-mini/ https://octopus.energy/blog/octopus-home-mini/ [2] https://octopus.energy/smart/tracker/ https://octopus.energy/smart/tracker/ [3] https://octopus.energy/smart/agile/ https://octopus.energy/smart/agile/ [4] https://octopus.energy/smart/intelligent-octopus-go/ https://octopus.energy/smart/intelligent-octopus-go/ [5] https://octopus.energy/smart/intelligent-octopus-flux/ https://octopus.energy/smart/intelligent-octopus-flux/ [6] https://kraken.tech https://kraken.tech

ZeroGravitas 2y ago
The founder of Octopus was from a software background and has claimed that Octopus (the energy company) was initially just to demo the potential of the software.
- ryankrage77 2y ago
  Ironic that their software is so terrible then - it took over two years for their support to do 'something' to my account so I could actually pay my bills.
  - walthamstow 2y ago
    Their hiring is awful too, they took 2 months to get back to me with feedback on my takehome task. I'd already been in a new job for three weeks when they finally came back.
Beretta_Vexee 2y ago
Octopus is currently trying to set up in France. They've got a pretty amazing advertising campaign where you don't know what they're selling except for a pink mascot. Alternative suppliers to EDF have a very bad reputation in France. Their contracts are often unclear and subject to major price variations (+100% after the start of the war in Ukraine). Some use unscrupulous prospectors who take advantage of elderly people to get them to change their contract (Total Energy, I'm thinking of you). The majority just buy Mw/h from EDF to resell and speculate on future production contracts. They don't invest a single euro in production facilities.

ZeroGravitas 2y ago

The founder of Octopus was from a software background and has claimed that Octopus (the energy company) was initially just to demo the potential of the software.

ryankrage77 2y ago
Ironic that their software is so terrible then - it took over two years for their support to do 'something' to my account so I could actually pay my bills.
- walthamstow 2y ago
  Their hiring is awful too, they took 2 months to get back to me with feedback on my takehome task. I'd already been in a new job for three weeks when they finally came back.

Beretta_Vexee 2y ago

Octopus is currently trying to set up in France. They've got a pretty amazing advertising campaign where you don't know what they're selling except for a pink mascot. Alternative suppliers to EDF have a very bad reputation in France. Their contracts are often unclear and subject to major price variations (+100% after the start of the war in Ukraine). Some use unscrupulous prospectors who take advantage of elderly people to get them to change their contract (Total Energy, I'm thinking of you). The majority just buy Mw/h from EDF to resell and speculate on future production contracts. They don't invest a single euro in production facilities.