Solar is soaring. The industry is bigger and better than ever. Homeowners have been enticed by the energy saving green incentives and the money saving guarantees. And the investments are paying off. One of the most alluring incentives is grid trading. In this blog we’ll explore the power of grid trading and how it can benefit you in your own home.
What exactly is grid trading?
Solar owners who have opted for battery storage are able to store excess energy generated during daytime hours and use it during the night time. Solar energy grid trading uses top tier intelligence to sell your excess energy back to the national grid during high usage times, offering the highest price. And buys it back when demand is low and cheap – at night, for example.
Your energy, whether you need it or not, will be sold on your behalf at the highest peak time and bought back at the lowest priced time. It gives customers the opportunity to make more money than the smart export guarantee scheme which currently pays on average 5p per unit fixed per month, a far cry from the currently unit price of electricity which stands at 51p per unit. Although some of the unit price is covered by government support, this will change in April of this year when the government reduces the contribution they offer towards energy bills.
This new style of buying and selling should have been further along but due to energy companies going bust and established companies with bigger pockets taking on thousands of new customers, Octopus Energy is currently the only company to offer the service.
Outgoing Octopus
This tariff allows customers to save money by alerting them when the cheapest times to use electricity are. They describe the tariff as ‘a true export that settles export real time with the grid.’
Essentially, if your home is powered by solar, they’ll buy your exported energy and sell it to the grid on your behalf.
Sound too good to be true?
Outgoing Octopus is known as a ‘smart export guarantee’ and, living up to its name, the price a customer is paid for what they export changes every half hour, reflecting the wholesale price of energy. Around dinner, when energy is in highest demand, you could get paid even more to export your energy. It’s an incentive that has become increasingly appealing given the current state of the energy market. With ongoing rising energy prices, the idea of actually being paid to generate electricity doesn’t sound half bad.
Not only does this make you money, but it relieves some of the pressure on the grid, offering it clean, green solar energy during periods filled with fossil fuels. Agile Outgoing Octopus is only one of the ways you can sell. While Agile is priced dynamically and helps homeowners export at the most lucrative times of the day, Fixed Outgoing Octopus is a flat tariff that allows you to sell your electricity at a 15p per kWh ‘flat price.’
There are several ways to generate excess electricity: solar panels, a micro-wind turbine, an electric vehicle with the ability to discharge to your home and, most likely, battery storage.
How does it work?
Octopus will measure your energy usage through a smart meter and keep a record of just how much energy you import, consume, and export back to the national grid. If you export payment is more than your consumption costs, then they’ll pay you.
Simple as that.
Grid trading is just one of the benefits of solar power. Understanding how to get the most out of your investment is incredibly important, and Vision2030 is here to help. From grid trading to battery maintenance, we’ve got an answer. Check out our other blogs and FAQs for more information.
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