There is some chatter in Octopus groups about people being warned and so on.
If on IOG they are controlling either the car or the charger. I would imagine the handshaking may give them some ideas, I don't know if the transmission of the car VIN or Mac is a standard thing on the sort of charge used, but if so that's a pretty easy way. Equally direct car control, for many - but not all - of the direct supported vehicles, uses the ISO standard. That id's the vehicle. Other ways will be quantity and pattern based. (Said chatter seems to suggest this may he used).
The logic is simple. It costs them money. They will be buying in at a greater price.
They recoup that because they know there will be peak time usage to compensate.
"Gaming" (eg multiple users, or the departure time tricks with IOG) causes a costly imbalance at scale.
The other one you mention is batteries, there are emerging tariffs which have differing controls, but this isn't yet as much of a potential issue. Few will have a huge quantity of batteries anyway and it's easier to factor max usage in load switching from historical data to sort pricing.
Personally I expect to see tariffs offering best rates late morning since that is when the grid is actually cheapest and cleaner, but that doesn't fit very well with what people want.
Brown export is another. Charge batteries overnight, export at peak. Most SEG doesn't allow it and insists on initial verification by schematic at least. But some does.
Over the past years overnight usage has increased dramatically.
A practical example of the issues may be people insisting on certain types of equipment, some won't offer an "ev" tariff (eon did this recently too, but have now backed away) without evidence of an ev.
Many were, and are, using to load shift. An ev charging 50kw a week costs the supplier only at that time (and they claw back). A battery set up costs both the subsidy and reduces 50kw of peak (so it's not so easy to claw back). It also affects supplier costs on the green levy, as they are buying in more dirtier overnight their subsidy costs are increased.
Octopus seem to be quite a long way down this road with proving eligibility and more complex balancing needed for a workable tariff based more on individual lifestyle and equipment.
Yes, you make some interesting points ZaphodBeeblebro and it is all a large can of worms.
I used to be integrated via the Tesla but it became unreliable and the advice from Octopus was to integrate with the Zappi charger instead.
You can only pair one charger to Intelligent and it happens to be the charger where the I Pace is parked, so we only do one or two "Intelligent" charge's a month. The Tesla charges every night, but on a simple timer set on the charger.
AC chargers receive zero feedback / info from the car, although they know how much charge the car is accepting.
We have three powerwall 2's, so in round terms that is 40 kWh of usable house battery capacity, or about half an I Pace battery to put it into perspective. Typically they run down to about 60% by the start of cheap off peak and then charge at 15 kW until they are full. The Tesla charges slowly whilst the powerwalls are charging (they have priority and the Zappi charger has a "grid limit" to protect the house 100 amp fuse). Once the house batteries stop, the Tesla charges at full rate until it hits its 80% charge target. On nights that the I Pace charges it stops and starts with Intelligent, but always seems to be ready by the 05:30 end of off peak.
What many people do not take into account (although it is mentioned above) is that Octopus have a very high peak rate to compensate for the good off peak rate. With our house batteries we never use any peak rate so I am not sure how or why they want me as a customer, unless they really do value all that power I sell them in the day (currently exporting 6.5 kW as I type this).
They cannot know how many EVs live in the household, but they will know that we export a lot in the day and we use a lot overnight, especially at the start of off peak. When I signed up with them I had to send copies of the PV paperwork so they know I have plenty of PV. The DNO say I am not allowed to export from the batteries, and that is fine. I don't. I can see why some people do because it could be very profitable. If the energy industry wanted me to export the batteries to give a nice source of brown power, I would be open to it (subject to a reasonable rate, i.e. more than I buy it for). However, I think that actually, the DNO is worried about aging infrastructure and does not want loads of micro generators dumping into the grid randomly playing havoc with grid voltage etc.
If Octopus were to contact me and say they don't like my usage, whether that is due to fair usage policy or a specific thing, I will say "that's fine" and look at my options. To be honest, now that most new build houses have solar PV installed, I do not see the nice export rates lasting. Nor, do I see the nice overnight cheap off peak lasting.
For most (but not all) of the year, I could run the house and charge the cars off grid, so the export price would be the primary factor in choosing a new supplier. If the export rate is more than the off peak rate, as it is now, I will continue to export all I can. If that changes (and I think it may) I will use the sun to charge the car and house batteries and only genuine surplus and minimise what import.
I would also be open to what "helps" them. If they want to give me cheap rate in the morning when the grid is cheap and green, that works for me. It does not have to be over night.
It will be interesting to see how the situation develops.
