Octopus Power Ups and Free Energy Sessions

Semple said:
It does barely seem worth it unless you've got household batteries or an EV that can be rapidly charged.
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If you have a lot of solar to accompany your batteries, it works against you. I generated ~5kwh in that period and at this time of the year I use zero peak rate electric. I get paid 15p/kwh and it costs me 7p/kwh to import overnight. So you've got a negative price delta of 8p/kwh to get over so you'd need to import 2.2x your export before factoring in any charging losses on say a battery to break even. So for today, that's 11kwh before you are saving any cash.
 
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I'll be at work tomorrow so won't benefit from this one unless I change my immersion timer, but I did manage to heat my water, run a hot cleaning cycle on the washing machine, a hot cycle on the dishwasher and a cleaning cycle on my oven on the first one of these last week so at least that's something!
 
Ah so a nice powerup coming tomorrow and "If a Power-up and a Free Electricity Session coincide, you'll only get credited for the Power-up (the more valuable reward)."

200sols said:
I found it hard to make use of negative daytime pricing with solar, same with these sessions.
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I dump my batteries before the sessions (15p export FTW) and then recharge when its free/very cheap

dlockers said:
Aren't we boned for free sessions after a while, because our pump and dump usage will alter the overall average/baseline?
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Nope, days when there are sessions are excluded from the calcs, they operate like saving sessions.
 
200sols said:
Yeah but solar is usually pumping when it's negative/free.
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It can be yes, but I tend to :
1) charge batteries which will just about top my generation if spiky and beat it on a full sun day, 5.5kw
2) heat water, 3kw
3) do washing/dishwashing, 1-3kw spiky during cycle
4) normal house load etc

What I tend to see is for the first 2 hours, give or take a net import varying from 3-8kw depending on cycle point and solar generation, then after that roughly equal or exporting depending on solar gen.

Solar has sat just under 5kw today (its windy and not that warm) for chunks but also had dips. So even worst case I would be importing 0.5kw for batteries (max is 5.5kw charging), so hot water and other stuff is all free from grid.

For sure the ability to pull from the grid and your own solar generation max (at what time of year) will influence how much you can pull from a session.
I mean I have my PU sessions listed and winter type ones have been as high as £11 refunded (I use a couple of fan heaters then as well), to may-july being more like £1-£2 credit back per session generally.
Often the PU will be when its windy which tends to often be cloudy generally as its usually the remains of a storm from elsewhere.
 
I can't make the sums work on these when they're at 1-2pm. It's forecast to be sunny so I would normally be producing and exporting at around 5-6kW at that time. If I sign up to this session, I gain an extra 5kW of export earlier as I would dump the batteries, but then recharge from 1-2pm and lose the same, plus my inverter currently has a bug where when I force export it clips all solar. :rolleyes:

I think where the saving sessions really benefit you with battery storage / solar, these are the opposite and benefit those without (and those with EVs too).
 
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reef said:
I can't make the sums work on these when they're at 1-2pm. It's forecast to be sunny so I would normally be producing and exporting at around 5-6kW at that time. If I sign up to this session, I gain an extra 5kW of export earlier as I would dump the batteries, but then recharge from 1-2pm and lose the same, plus my inverter currently has a bug where when I force export it clips all solar. :rolleyes:

I think where the saving sessions really benefit you with battery storage / solar, these are the opposite and benefit those without (and those with EVs too).
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It's worse when you are on an EV tariff and your import is only 7p you have to more than double your usual solar export before you start gaining and then you are really only gaining 7p/kwh.

I think Octopus acknowledge these sessions are not really for those with solar. If you have a big battery and inverter relative to your array size, it might be worth it but not for a more equally matched system.
 
Ah yes, a proper power up tomorrow too.

I'm glad I'm not the poor analyst that has to work on the query to calculate what's owed, when you've got bother power ups and free energy sessions overlapping. :p

PS - included in the emails is ....

How does this work with Free Electricity sessions?

In a nutshell, you can be part of both Power-ups and Free Electricity, but when they coincide, you'll only get the Power-ups reward.
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b0rn2sk8 said:
It's worse when you are on an EV tariff and your import is only 7p you have to more than double your usual solar export before you start gaining and then you are really only gaining 7p/kwh.

I think Octopus acknowledge these sessions are not really for those with solar. If you have a big battery and inverter relative to your array size, it might be worth it but not for a more equally matched system.
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It works well for me, as my inverter and charger are separate units connected to the battery busbar, when I turn off the inverter over the free hour my solar still charges the battery and the battery charger will be on as well.
Easy free 10kw with the house loads and a fully charged battery at the end if I time everything right.

My daily use was 99% on the free time last free session.

Edit to add pic.

sOVukrdh.jpg
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
It's worse when you are on an EV tariff and your import is only 7p you have to more than double your usual solar export before you start gaining and then you are really only gaining 7p/kwh.

I think Octopus acknowledge these sessions are not really for those with solar. If you have a big battery and inverter relative to your array size, it might be worth it but not for a more equally matched system.
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I can only export at 5kW and I can only charge my batteries at 6kW + the car at ~7kW so in these one hour free sessions the best I can do is pull ~13kWh. Given that the best I can do export-wise is 5kWh, I'd be avoiding a maximum 75p of export to save 91p, assuming the batteries need charging by exactly 6kWh and the car can take 7kWh (which given I only charge it to 80% is possible but it isn't always at home during these hours). Without the car, it makes no sense whatsoever. Even with the car, it isn't worth my time to faff with the UI of the battery.

I'd imagine next to nobody is making any realistically worthwhile/meaningful saving with these sessions but it is excellent marketing for Octopus!
 
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