Octopus Energy, an energy provider and installer of energy technology, currently offers “the smartest and cheapest EV charging tariff in the German market.”
This is according to Bastian Gierull, CEO at Octopus Energy Germany, in conversation with Mobility Portal Europe.
It’s worth mentioning that in Great Britain, where the company originated as a startup eight years ago, most of the firm’s intelligent tariffs were developed.
“Now we are also offering these tariffs in Germany, and the goal is to offer them in every country where Octopus Energy is operating,” Gierull anticipates.
Currently, the company operates as an energy provider in eight countries, though it is present in 18.
“However, this is changing rapidly because we are a fast-growing company,” the CEO comments.
On the other hand, it’s worth highlighting that the company offers “Intelligent Octopus Go”, the most popular EV tariff in the United Kingdom (UK).
This tariff allows the car to charge automatically when electricity prices are lowest, enabling users to benefit from lower rates.
Intelligent Octopus Go now powers 150,000 electric vehicles when it’s both more environmentally friendly and cost-effective, allowing users to reduce charging costs by up to 70%.
What are the benefits offered by these “extremely intelligent” tariffs? “They eliminate all the responsibility and challenges for the user.”
“As an energy provider, with our Kraken technological platform, we manage the complexities and only pass on the benefits to the customer,” explains Gierull.
In contrast, providers that offer only a dynamic tariff, which depends on market prices at any given moment, transfer much of the responsibility and risk to the user.
“If prices are low, they save money, but if they rise, they pay more,” he points out.
This was evident a few weeks ago: “There was a technical issue and prices soared for several hours during the day. This meant that those charging during those times paid huge amounts for their energy.”
According to the CEO, while people want to be part of the energy revolution, they “are afraid” of these new tariffs that can change daily, potentially leading to additional costs for customers.
Octopus Energy “eliminates all of this”: users come home, plug in their EV, and through the app, they define when they are likely to leave again and at what charge percentage they want the car.
“Imagine a person comes home and knows they won’t be driving for the next two days. They can then determine when they will leave again and what percentage of charge they want,” illustrates Gierull.
Considering that specific period of time, Octopus Energy builds an optimized charging schedule for that particular EV, taking into account market prices at that moment, the availability of green energy in the grid, and its balance.
In the future, the company could also consider other data such as weather forecasts.
“We also create a schedule for each car on the street or in the city that has our tariff,” he adds.
And he continues: “We can optimize different schedules across the network, meaning some people will charge earlier and others later, but everyone will have their vehicle ready when they want to leave.”
The benefit for the customer is that they will only pay 0.20 euros per kilowatt-hour for that tariff, “no matter what,” making it “the cheapest tariff available in Germany right now.”
It’s also worth noting that there is an option to instantly charge the car as quickly as possible, but at the regular energy tariff.
Octopus Power Pack: UK’s first V2G tariff
This year, the company launched Power Pack, the UK‘s first Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) tariff for the mass market.
By integrating Power Pack with their standard tariff, Octopus Energy configures the V2G charger to manage charge and discharge in the most environmentally friendly manner, potentially allowing customers to charge for free.
As a result, a typical V2G driver could save 880 pounds per year compared to Flexible Octopus, and 180 pounds compared to Intelligent Octopus Go.
“If a household adds an EV, their energy consumption doubles. But the car is the largest battery they have, and leaving that power unused is a waste,” explains Gierull.
He adds, “There are many kilowatts or gigawatt-hours of batteries out there that, if utilized, could power that household.”
Moreover, the CEO comments that if the energy from the car could be sold when market prices are exceptionally high, individuals might not have to pay their energy bills.
“This is the future. If we achieve this, we will have solved a major problem in the energy transition,” Gierull indicates.
However, there are challenges that need to be addressed.
While Power Pack was launched in beta to demonstrate its feasibility, car manufacturers need to catch up to unleash V2G potential for more drivers.
In this regard, the CEO notes, “We are in discussions with manufacturers and we know that future models they release will have these features. It’s on their roadmap.”
“So the sooner we start introducing it, the better,” he adds.
Currently, Octopus Energy is setting up trials for bidirectional charging in Germany.
They aim to determine how it can be implemented in the country, what the restrictions are, and what regulatory changes need to be made.
“Much of the energy market, as it is structured today, isn’t ready for this transition to the new energy world. So there will be some structural changes needed to enable bidirectional charging and V2G,” he asserts.
Additionally, a key challenge in Germany involves multiple grid operators and different energy companies.
“For instance, if a car is charged in Munich with energy from Munich, and then driven to another state and discharged there… How would tracking be handled?”
“It’s early days, but at Octopus, we believe it’s time to start pioneering, to figure out where the problems lie, and then discuss with stakeholders how we need to change this,” acknowledges the CEO.
