Octopus Power Ups and Free Energy Sessions

And another tomorrow.

There's rain and thick cloud forecast here tomorrow but plenty of wind, so that must be where the surplus is coming from.

This scheme doesn't make sense to me still, wouldn't they make money if they sold the excess energy to the continent?

Edit, or is this a way of reducing peak load meaning they reduce costs overall?
 
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I think the issue is that there isn't enough capacity to get it out of the region in any direction.
Eg generation is say 5gw but the main interconnects can only handle say 4gw.
So rather than throttling back the generation they are testing the approach to give it free to consumers and seeing if they can load shift.
Which is greener since for me for example it does reduce my usage at other times.
 
Had the big EV at home and managed to pull nearly 14kw the whole 2 hours today. Dinner cooked, cloths washed and dried, dishes washed, dinner cooked and the kitchen floor nice and warm.

And there's another one again tomorrow (21st) - 3 days in a row.

If this is going to be a long term thing, it might be worth investing in some electric heaters. Last winter I usually heated the house at around 3pm for the kids coming home. Should save a bit of gas useage.
 
Bug One said:
If this is going to be a long term thing, it might be worth investing in some electric heaters. Last winter I usually heated the house at around 3pm for the kids coming home. Should save a bit of gas useage.
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Yeah I have been thinking about that too. I do have one heater already which I could put in the extension. I'm hesitant to buy more though.
 
Haha I was kind of tempted to buy a couple of fan heaters last year for the savings sessions.

If this continues then I am also tempted for when its cold. Being able to wack a few kwh of heat in for free is appealing mid/late afternoon.

I found myself looking at sand batteries the other day, and how simple they are to make.
(Basically resistance wire into a "bucket" of sand. A nice cheap chunky resistance wire load is contained in a cheap kettle element...)
 
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Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Surprised so few have taken advantage of this

Currently :
Charging my batteries, tumble is on, DW is on, water heater is on, washing machine is doing one of our infrequent hot washes whilst empty (recommended to avoid gunk forming with low temp normal washes)
Sucking in 12.1kw at the mo but that will drop as we go
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Not many areas where it's operating.

I've got a massive solar farm and am surrounded by off shore wind - so I guess lots of local generation.
 
Another today just in case anyone missed it.

Also
During the Power Ups on 12/09/23, 14/09/23, 15/09/23, 19/09/23, 20/09/23, 21/09/23 you’ve used 847% more electricity than usual. We’ll credit you a total of £26.25 for all of the electricity you used during this time.

£26.25 was about 65kwh for me on my old tariff, only just switched yesterday from 40p day units

Noob levels of extra usage!
 
During the Power Ups on 12/09/23, 14/09/23, 15/09/23, 19/09/23, 20/09/23, 21/09/23 you’ve used 434% more electricity than usual. We’ll credit you a total of £13.19 for all of the electricity you used during this time.

I'm about at the limit of what I can do without an ev or house battery system. I have thought about heating up the oven to max temperature and hope it stays warmish for dinner time :D
 
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