Made a tool to estimate your electricity bill when (if) Dynamic Tariffs launch

AvalonEnaid

Heya!

I've been following the launch of Dynamic Tariffs for Ireland for a while now and even though they were meant to launch this year, the CRU decided the push out the launch till next year because our current providers were not ready (https://www.cru.ie/publications/28339/).

So while we're waiting to see if Dynamic Tariffs will ever be launched, I built a small tool that takes your smart meter data and works out what your bill may look like for a single month when dynamic tariffs launch.

You can find the (still very much in beta) tool at www.wattson.ie

All you do is:

1. Download your Smart Meter CSV from ESB networks.
2. Upload it to the site.
3. Get an estimated bill for your most recent full month, based on a realistic pricing model.

Just a bit of fun, but could be handy for anyone curious about how the new rates might hit their wallet.

con747

Might be better posting in a thread like below? I think Solis has inverters ready now for dynamic pricing but i'm not sure if it's rolled out here yet. https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058336271/dynamic-electricity-price-tariffs-consultation-paper/p1

coylemj

OP, will that tool work if you blank out the MPRN number and meter serial no. from the CSV file before uploading it?

I would be wary about handing over my usage data along with sufficient data to identify my home address. I read your data/privacy protection statement and it all looks fine but still ….

AvalonEnaid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123719963#Comment_123719963

You can delete the columns from the file completely :)

It just needs:

Read Value	Read Type	Read Date and End Time
0.102	Active Import Interval (kWh)	08/08/2025 02:30
0.127	Active Import Interval (kWh)	08/08/2025 02:00

coylemj

OK, I uploaded my smart meter data without the MPRN or serial no. columns and I can see an estimated bill for each month, going back two years. What are those amounts based on i.e. are they based on the current rates charged by one of the existing utilities or did you use your ballpark estimates of what we will be paying when dynamic pricing is introduced?

You are showing bills for calendar months. I'd suggest that, in a future version, you allow the user to specify a monthly bill date so that the numbers are more aligned with their billing cycle.

Good work, keep at it.

AvalonEnaid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123725184#Comment_123725184

Thanks!

The rates are based on a realistic pricing model. It uses historical wholesale rates of electricity and then does a bit of maths to arrive at a number. It won't be perfectly accurate, but I'm confident the bill estimate will not be off by hundreds of Euro per month. Less than a tenner or so.

As for the bill going back two years. It shouldn't have? I wrote the system to only go back as far as 01/01/2024 since that's the only pricing data I have. It will try to find the most recent months from the uploaded file and use that. But since I can never get access to your file, there might be an edge case bug I'm unaware of

¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

My next update coming this week will be to apply a realistic optimization model where it load shifts some of your usage to the cheaper times.

coylemj

My mistake, the analysis screen only covers one year, July 2025 back to August 2024.

While my pricing is not dynamic, I am on a smart meter plan and pay more for peak usage and less for off-peak, as well as free electricity on Sundays. Your estimate for my bills is €30 per month while my nornal two month bill is c. €100. Does this mean that I can expect a reduction when they introduce dynamic pricing?

KaneToad

Good work, well done

I've used the UCD tool in the past too, another great tool.

https://www.energycostcalculator.ie/

AvalonEnaid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123732339#Comment_123732339

A typical dynamic tariff won't replicate the free Sundays and you could pay more for that Sunday unless you shift usage to the cheap time slots. The free Sundays lowers your real bill and the price model used by Wattson doesn't give you €0 on Sundays. So the comparison gets skewed.

I'll need to update the model to detect and account for this. Thanks for catching this!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123732355#Comment_123732355

Oh I like this site! A lot of information is offered, but quite intrusive on the amount of questions they ask. I'm trying to make my tool be as privacy focused as possible.