From the printing press to the web, each nice technological revolution has introduced large societal change, and the inexperienced vitality revolution can be no completely different.
Humanity has discovered a approach to get limitless clear energy from pure sources just like the solar, the wind and the waves. However there’s no level attempting to ship tomorrow’s renewable vitality via a hundred-year outdated vitality system constructed round soiled, outdated fossil fuels.
It’s time to construct one thing utterly new in vitality – and we’ve already put collectively the blueprints. The long run can be inexperienced, good, versatile and decentralised – rewarding shoppers for profiting from vitality when the wind’s blowing, and creating revolutionary methods to retailer that inexperienced energy to make use of when it’s not. Our mission is to convey that system to the world rapidly, and make it accessible and reasonably priced to all.
This isn’t some far off dream. Actual persons are already experiencing the way forward for vitality at this time due to good tariffs like AgileOctopus. You possibly can examine a few of them right here.
The way forward for vitality
With variable half-hourly costs based mostly on the wholesale price of vitality (i.e., what WE pay for it), AgileOctopus rewards clients massively for utilizing extra vitality when the grid is chock stuffed with inexperienced, renewable generated electrons, and for utilizing much less when the grid is at its dirtiest (normally between 4-7pm on weekdays).
Now, this definitely doesn’t imply that anybody would (or may) ever ‘swap off’ an Agile clients’ energy.
As an alternative, it’s a bit like “peak” and “off-peak” practice tickets. At peak occasions, when trains are busier, tickets generally is a little pricier, however in case you’re in a position to journey off-peak, you may typically snag an actual discount.
Similar to that, Agile clients are rewarded for being a bit extra versatile with their vitality utilization – in different phrases, for travelling “off peak” by shifting their vitality consumption by a few hours (working washing machines and charging laptops a bit earlier within the day, or later within the night).
Proper now – as you learn this, Agile is already permitting tens of hundreds of individuals across the nation to take pleasure in actual money and carbon financial savings by merrily making adjustments to how (and when) they use vitality.
Meet a few of our Agile clients
Shan and Hannah
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Shan and Hannah work full-time for the NHS, and reside in Tyne and Put on with their three younger children. They’ve saved £238 within the final 12 months by doing the washing later, cooking earlier later at night time, and charging their EV in a single day.
Hear from Shan how his household makes use of Agile.
Colin and Steve
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Colin and Steve reside in Milton Keynes, and because of the nature of their work, are out and in at random hours. They save a whole bunch of ££ by charging their automobiles in a single day, and working house home equipment on the most cost-effective/greenest occasions.
Examine Colin and Steve right here.
Glyn and Amy
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Glyn and Amy reside collectively in rural Wales with no fuel mains, in order that they’re reliant on 100% electrical energy. They make money working from home 80% of the time throughout lockdown and have saved £700+ on Agile up to now 12 months.
Shan and Hannah
Shan and Hannah reside in Tyne and Put on with their three younger children. They each work full time for the NHS. With everybody out of the home through the day, they use most of their energy at house within the evenings and in a single day.
To benefit from low-cost Agile costs, they transfer the occasions they use their washer and dryer, dishwasher to later at night time, begin cooking earlier, and cost their electrical automobile (and robotic lawnmower, Robochop!) in a single day to keep away from the 4-7pm value peak.
Shan reckons they’ve saved £238 within the final 12 months in comparison with the typical ‘customary’ electrical energy value within the UK.
Shan is a eager good house geek and has an awesome YouTube channel the place he chats about all types of house hacks – take a look at one among his movies on Agile, give him a observe when you’re there.
The household grew to become actually conscious of the environmental influence of their vitality 5 years in the past, once they made the choice to put in photo voltaic panels on the roof. Ever since, they’ve executed all they’ll to cut back their carbon footprint additional by altering vitality habits, and Agile has allowed them to save lots of oodles of money on the identical time. However don’t take our phrase for it…
Colin and Steve
Colin and Steve reside in Milton Keynes with their two pups. They each work out of the home and due to their shifts, are at all times out and in at random occasions and days. They’ve bought two EVs and a scorching tub and are eagerly awaiting the set up of a house battery as a part of a load-shifting trial with Milton Keynes council.
Why did you select Agile?
Colin: I exploit Agile primarily to save cash. I used to be on OctopusGo for some time earlier than, which was good because it gave some certainty across the low-cost occasions, nonetheless I noticed that we may save much more on Agile by fairly simply shifting our demand.
Colin: Sure! As I write this, I used to be about to place the range on, however noticed on my OctopusWatch app that if I waited 20 minutes I may decrease the price of cooking from 14.33p to 12.79p. It isn’t an awesome deal, however it all provides up…
I might genuinely say we’re paying between 30% lower than after we had been on OctopusGo.
Between Mar-Dec 2020, our payments on Agile price £834.48, and Go would’ve price £1088.44 which is a smidge over 30% saving on Agile!
What do you do to shift your vitality and get monetary savings?
Colin: As a result of we each work random shifts we get extra alternative to shift our demand round. We’re hardly in through the night peak, which helps, and after we are we will simply push dinner til after 7pm. In addition to the dishwasher and washer, the primary issues we attempt to load-shift are the automobiles and it is all fairly simple due to timers and delay capabilities.
We use a couple of completely different apps to assist with this. For the automobiles, we’ve bought an app to set charging occasions, however it’s fairly guide – it doesn’t ‘be taught’/optimise charging, or robotically energy on. It’s very easy to schedule although…
I additionally use apps to watch my vitality use, and greatest occasions to shift our consumption to. My hubby is extra techy than me, so he does extra of the analysis into what apps to make use of to assist us each see when costs and CO2 are decrease, and likewise for automating a few of our capabilities – like utilizing ‘routines’ in Google Residence to show lights on and off!
I discovered the Vivid app was helpful to make use of moderately than the IHD which was equipped as you will be wherever and see what your present electrical energy use is (I used to be discovering it a nuisance to should stroll to the IHD!)
We love checking the OctopusWatch app too. It’s nice for displaying when’s the most cost effective interval for a sure length of use – it’ll let you know when’s the most cost effective time to do a one hour wash within the washer, or a two hour dishwasher cycle, after which makes use of that data to programme the equipment to modify on.
We additionally simply control the climate forecast – if it seems to be like it should be windy in a few days we’d maintain off charging the automotive till then. Plus, we control the forecasts and our rosters to determine whether or not we’re in a position to make use of the new tub – it isn’t a lot enjoyable sat in it in a downpour! (I’ve shifted the bathtub’s every day computerized cycle to 8pm-9pm so it’s simply off-peak because it’s actually vitality intensive to run).
Glyn and Amy reside in a brilliant rural a part of Gwynedd with out entry to mains fuel. Agile powers all their electrical heating, cooking and transport: they energy up their storage heaters, immersion heating and a pair of EVs throughout low-cost, inexperienced off-peak occasions and have saved £782 up to now 12 months.
Glyn and Amy normally work out of the home more often than not, however have moved to (largely) house work for the reason that pandemic began. Glyn’s a little bit of a wise vitality knowledgeable himself: he co-founded OpenEnergyMonitor, a venture to focus on open-source instruments to assist people relate to their use of vitality, the vitality system and the problem of sustainable vitality.
They’ve bought a fab photo voltaic set-up that exports surplus electrical energy to the grid (and earns them a few cents due to OutgoingOctopus).
Why did you select Agile?
Glyn: Primarily environmentally motivated, however it’s even higher when this additionally works out financially!
Have you ever saved any money on Agile?
Sure, I’ve saved £782 in comparison with my outdated ‘flat charge’ (customary) tariff! This is a graph of the financial savings per thirty days.
I signed as much as @octopus_energy Agile dynamic pricing tariff a 12 months in the past as an experiment, I’ve at all times tried to cut back the Co2 of my vitality through the use of off-peak the place doable, Agile rewards me for this, the result’s a saving of £792 in comparison with my outdated tariff🤯💚 pic.twitter.com/bvHrDAhWtV
— Glyn Hudson (@glynhudson) January 21, 2021
What do you do to shift your vitality use and get monetary savings?
Glyn: I largely simply schedule our vitality intensive home equipment to run at an off-peak time – normally in a single day. For our family that is simple to do – we reside in a rural space with no entry to mains fuel, so our home is totally electrical, with two EVs, storage heaters, and home scorching water (immersion) heating. Plus, we’ve photo voltaic panels.
Right here’s a take a look at our vitality consumption (from each Agile and our photo voltaic panels) subsequent to Agile pricing, so you may see how we have managed to maneuver after we use energy to when it is most cost-effective…
A lot of the scheduling occurs robotically with the assistance of OpenEnergyMonitor (I work there), and we’ve bought a show display at house so we will rapidly see all data associated to our vitality use, in addition to the price of energy all through the day on Agile.
We nonetheless make tea throughout peak occasions – even at peak Agile value boiling a mug of water within the kettle remains to be solely about 1.5p!
Why is greener energy cheaper with Agile?
A world powered by 100% inexperienced vitality isn’t out of attain, however we’re going to should learn to benefit from it, and Agile clients can be an enormous a part of the image. By turning down their vitality utilization when electrical energy is in excessive demand, Agile clients cut back the necessity to activate so many fossil gasoline energy crops to fulfill that demand.
Just lately, three authorities insurance policies have been put in place to to assist us keep away from a local weather disaster, they usually’re going to have an effect on the UK electrical energy market in an enormous method:
- The UK goal for Internet Zero CO2 Emissions by 2050
- All new automobiles bought can be electrical by 2030
- Gasoline boilers will now not be put in in new properties from 2025.
That is nice information, however as we part out coal, oil and fuel, we’ll have to generate much more electrical energy to fill the hole – plus, as transport and heating are electrified, our demand is ready to triple within the subsequent ten years and we’d like all these new electrons to be inexperienced ones.
Fortunately, by 2030, renewable vitality is forecast to make up over 40% of the UK’s electrical energy provide. That is additionally fabulous information – renewable sources are low-cost and clear – they don’t require any gasoline or launch any carbon as soon as put in. However they’re additionally “intermittent”. In different phrases, wind generators generate vitality when the wind is blowing, and photo voltaic panels generate vitality when the solar is shining – we will’t name on them at any time when we wish. You’ll sometimes come throughout naysayers who beat their drum about this – and intermittency does pose a problem – however it isn’t the be-all and end-all that inexperienced vitality sceptics make it out to be. We’re already one step forward.
Collectively, the skyrocketing demand for electrical energy and the large enhance of intermittent renewable era are going to have a huge effect on how the grid is designed and managed. We’ll should account for giant swings in era – excessive peaks and really low troughs all through the day. The reply includes shifting away from massive energy stations to good, extremely decentralised era, larger flexibility market functionality and utilizing vitality “value indicators” to affect behaviour, encouraging customers to benefit from renewable vitality when it’s considerable.
That’s the place AgileOctopus is available in!
We take day-ahead electrical energy wholesale market costs, which fluctuate moment-to second, and cross these costs (i.e what WE pay for it) on to shoppers. We’re already demonstrating that folks’s vitality utilization will be influenced straight by half-hourly value indicators, encouraging utilization when the grid is most cost-effective and greenest, with exceptional outcomes.
Agile’s charges typically match up with carbon emissions. In different phrases, Agile is normally cheaper when the grid is greener, and dearer when vitality is dirtier (normally between 4-7pm, when the UK’s fossil gasoline producing stations have been turned on to fulfill vitality demand). This screenshot from the OctopusWatch app exhibits a transparent correlation between how soiled the grid is, and AgileOctopus’ charges. (The blue line represents the depth of CO2 emissions – from the Carbon Depth API, and the pink line exhibits AgileOctopus’ costs).
Throughout peak hours, AgileOctopus clients assist take pressure off the grid as a result of they’re incentivised to cut back their vitality consumption (and subsequently the necessity for turbines to burn a lot fossil gasoline). This implies they’re usually a lot greener than different shoppers. What’s extra, when there’s a great deal of extra renewable vitality within the grid, and never sufficient persons are utilizing it, Agile’s pricing goes damaging, and clients are literally paid to make use of vitality!
This is what an AgileOctopus value plunge seems to be like in motion ⚡️🌪️
Take a look at all these brill clients getting paid to benefit from large quantities of wind energy flowing via the wires 💚 https://t.co/ocVAFinDAZ
— Octopus Vitality (@octopus_energy) October 27, 2020
AgileOctopus doesn’t imply you may’t prepare dinner a meal between 4.00pm and seven.00pm. As an alternative, it’s about altering the vitality use with units that may eat vitality at any time the day:
- Electrical heating equivalent to Air Supply Warmth Pumps (ASHP)
- Sure high-consuming home equipment equivalent to dishwashers, washing machines and dryers.
- Scorching water provide; both as a part of an ASHP or smart-controlled scorching water tank
- Electrical Automobile (EV) charging; and the place doable EV-discharge to the house referred to as V2G
- Residence battery storage; normally related to rooftop photo voltaic era
- Warmth Storage; both electrical or by connection to an ASHP
What’s extra, these are additionally the kinds of home equipment that may simply be automated. Agile clients obtain large advantages from predicting their vitality consumption and automating home equipment (utilizing our open Agile API) in response to our every day value forecast. For instance, you need to use our Agile API to program a Powervault good battery to refill on electrical energy from the nationwide grid at any time when the vitality within the grid is most cost-effective and greenest. Then, when grid vitality is at its dirtiest and most costly, the Powervault can depend on all that low-cost, inexperienced vitality it has saved as much as energy your private home as an alternative. This manner, even with out home-solar era, Powervault and Agile work collectively to save the typical vitality consumer between £270 to £580 a 12 months* and do wonders to your carbon footprint. You could find out extra about the right way to hack your private home for cheaper, greener vitality in our good house information weblog!
Constructing tomorrow’s vitality system at this time
In fact, AgileOctopus is just one piece of the puzzle. We’re finishing up loads of different groundbreaking work as we lay the blueprint for the vitality system of the longer term. We do related checks and behaviour-shifting trials with non-agile good meter clients to see how ‘Agile’ pricing works on the big scale – learn all about it in our Massive Swap On weblog. You may as well discover out about discovering novel methods we’re working to retailer renewable vitality and ‘stability the grid’ through the use of revolutionary chargers that may flip electrical automobiles into big ‘battery packs’ to energy your private home, or about our innovative analysis into smart-tech and vitality consumption with the College of Salford at Vitality Home 2. When you’re at it, why not additionally learn up on our plans for a Future Vitality Analysis Centre, and discover out extra about what makes Octopus Vitality so very Inexperienced!
