Octopus Energy is launching a new product which will offer customers free electricity when there is excess renewable power on the local electricity network.
The ‘Power-ups’ scheme has been launched alongside UK Power Networks (UKPN) and is currently available to smart meter customers in “key areas where there’s regularly extra green electrons going to waste” in the South East and East of England.
It follows a flexibility tender launched by UKPN last year for demand turn-up and generation turn-down. The DNO said in May that it awarded more than 1GW of contracts in total, including 991MW for demand turn-up/generation turn down.
Under the Power ups scheme the energy retailer will use UKPN forecasts to notify participating customers of the times they can use electricity for free when there is abundant wind and solar power on the grid.
A typical session will be an hour or two long and customers will have to opt in to each one after being notified of the power-up by Octopus via email, usually the day before.
Source: Octopus Energy
Octopus will then work out how much energy was consumed during each session and pay back the difference as account credit every few weeks.
The scheme will begin on 14 August and run for at least the next year.
Alex Schoch, head of flexibility at Octopus Energy Group, said: “Thanks to Octopus’ proprietary technology rewarding ‘demand turn up’, we no longer need to switch off bountiful solar and wind power when consumers can use it up for free instead.
“It’s good for the grid and good for the planet – a win for everybody. ‘Power-ups’ is yet another arrow in the quiver of ‘demand flexibility’ and it’s great to work with an innovator like UK Power Networks.”
Sotiris Georgiopoulos, director of distribution system operator at UK Power Networks, said: “In response to growing volumes of renewable power, UK Power Networks is the first distribution system operator to call for ‘demand turn up’.
“We’re delighted to have seen a strong response to the requirements we issued in December, including from innovators like Octopus. Tapping into customer flexibility means we can connect more renewable energy, keeping costs down for our customers.”