Some of the UK’s energy companies are offering free electricity to aid the grid in shifting consumer energy usage to off-peak periods through the use of incentives. OVO and EDF Energy offer free electricity to some customers at off-peak times. Octopus Energy offers customers free electricity at specific times when there are high levels of renewable energy being generated by solar or wind power. This enables their customers to share in the benefit of the sun shining and the wind blowing which produces higher volumes of electricity.
The UK has seen a growth in renewable energy capacity recently with much more in the pipeline to help us meet the government’s carbon reduction targets. Managing renewable energy production and energy demand is complex and innovative suppliers like Octopus Energy are trying schemes like giving away free electricity to help flex the electricity demand to match when the production is high. As the UK’s energy system and production evolves it requires consumption patterns to change as well as the incorporation of energy storage facilities.
So on those particularly sunny days, Octopus Energy customers may be alerted of free electricity hours so that they can benefit from free electricity and can move their energy usage to these times to help use this excess capacity. The same applies on windy days when in the past we have seen power stations shut down capacity as the wind energy is sufficient to cancel out the power that the power station would have produced.
Being able to take advantage of these free hours of electricity is great for customers, but what if you could benefit from free electricity all year round? You could install solar panels and have free electricity generated for yourself which could save you over £1,000 per year. Solar panels work all year round as they produce electricity from daylight, not just sunlight – so you can still produce electricity for your home in winter too!
If you install solar panels you can include battery storage as part of your solar PV system so that you can store your electricity to enable you to use it when you need it. And in the case of the free Octopus Energy hours, you could store the free electricity that they are offering in your battery storage too! Octopus Energy also offer innovative tariffs for solar PV owners that have battery storage which encourages you to store grid electricity during the night and release it back to the grid during peak hours in the early evening by offering advantageous rates, this is called Octopus Flux. So not only will you benefit from free electricity from your solar panels but you can make money from managing your energy through your battery storage which can be all set up automatically. So it is a win-win!
There’s a lot in favour of renewable energy especially as energy prices are unpredictable and energy independence is becoming more important. If you are interested in investigating how much you can save with solar panels then use our solar PV calculator or get in touch to find out more.
