Octopus Energy Battery Storage
For those looking to maximise energy savings with battery storage systems, there is a range of energy tariffs that can integrate well with your home battery storage, lowering your energy costs when used effectively. Find out more about how Octopus Energy combined with battery storage can help you save on your energy bills!
How Can Night-Time Charging Rates Benefit Me?
With energy prices at an all-time high, and still likely to increase in the future. By effectively utilising a smart energy tariff like those offered by Octopus Energy alongside home battery storage, savings can be maximised. For those with solar panels or concerned about renewable energy, Octopus Energy is the leading renewable energy electricity supplier in the UK, offering double the benefit.
With the right battery storage, it’s possible to store enough electricity in off-peak periods to effectively supply the full demand of a property. Two key things to consider in order to achieve this when selecting a battery storage system are the necessary storage capacity and the peak demand of your household.
Storage Capacity
An approximation for necessary storage capacity can be calculated using your smart meter by considering a property’s average usage over 24 hours.
Peak Demand
This is a property’s maximum electricity demand. It is important to know this to ensure your system can meet this demand, or at least most of it so that peak-rate energy usage can be minimised.
Find The Best Octopus Energy Off-Peak Battery Storage Tariff
Octopus Energy provides a variety of different smart tariffs that can be integrated with your smart meter to offer the best deal on green energy for their customers. To take advantage of these variable reduced energy tariffs with your home battery storage, your home must have a smart meter installed to take a reading every half an hour.
This is a necessary integration for these variable tariffs as the energy unit prices, and therefore what you pay for your electricity, rely on the time of day that you’re using power.
Octopus provide a range of tariffs to help you maximise your energy usage without increasing costs more than necessary, these include:
Find out more below!
Octopus Go
Octopus GO is the oldest of the smart tariffs from Octopus Energy, created for EV drivers so they can charge their electric car overnight at a more affordable rate. This is especially welcome in the wake of the news of a ban on diesel and petrol cars by 2030, with hybrid cars following in 2035. Combining this with the rising cost of energy and finding an economical workaround couldn’t be more essential.
The reduced rates offered on Octopus GO are available between 00:30 am and 4:30 am, at the low rate of just 12p/kWh (previously 5p/kWh). Standard rates for homes are currently around 31.8p/kWh, but this could rise again in March 2023 – offering a massive saving. Utilising these rates to charge your home battery storage system or storage heaters overnight at this cheaper rate can help you to maximise your energy savings. Your home can then run off this stored energy during the day – as long as you have a large enough system.
However, the caveat to these night-time savings is a variable and often increased cost, during “peak times” as well as a higher standing rate. Therefore, it’s vital that those on this tariff make use of the off-peak hours and limit use in the day outside of pre-charged battery storage. The amount can differ depending on where you’re based in the UK but is still a competitive rate in comparison to other UK energy company flat rates.
Agile Octopus
Agile Octopus works slightly differently, as your energy rates are instead linked to wholesale energy prices, with energy prices adjusting to the market every half an hour. This dynamic pricing structure means that you will no longer pay a set rate for your electricity. Instead, when wholesale energy prices drop, so do your bills, and by shifting your energy usage to these times as much as possible, as well as avoiding peak times between 4 pm and 7 pm, you’ll be able to take advantage of the possible savings. Customers will be alerted every time energy prices fall so that they can tailor their electricity usage accordingly.
This scheme also allows Octopus Energy customers to make use of “plunge pricing”. This is where more electricity is being generated than consumed across the UK, massively dropping energy prices, sometimes below zero. During these times energy suppliers are actually paid to take energy off the grid, and with Agile Octopus you can take advantage of this too. Get paid to take excess energy off the grid! This would be the best time to charge up your battery storage system.
On the other side of plunge pricing is surge pricing, where energy prices will rise in line with demand. These price spikes do happen but are typically quite short, often lasting 30-60 mins when they do happen. But don’t worry! Agile Octopus does include Price Cap Protect, ensuring you never pay more than 100p/kWh, even during a price surge – guaranteed.
Cosy Octopus
Recently released (December 2022), Cosy Octopus is designed with green energy in mind. This tariff was created to benefit customers with air-source heat pumps, a greener way of heating the home. This has come off the back of the government scheme that allows domestic customers to purchase heat pumps VAT free, in order to promote greener energy. If you own an air source heat pump or have booked an installation, then this Tariff can help you save money on your energy – and now electricity can also be used to heat your home.
What a lot of people aren’t realising, is that air source heat pump is simply another term for air conditioning. Air conditioning can be used to cool or heat your home, and now with this government scheme as well as tariffs like cosy octopus, AC can now save you money!
With Cosy Octopus, customers benefit from 6 hours of reduced-cost energy across two windows of three hours, one in the morning and one at night. This is double what was previously available on alternative tariffs. This new system allows for increased flexibility without compromising on savings.
Unlike other Octopus smart tariffs, the new Cosy Octopus Tariff has three energy rates, as well as the daily standing charge:
- Off-Peak Rate: 4 am to 7 am and 1 pm to 4 pm – 20.38p/kWh – 40% cheaper than Day Rate.
- Peak Rate: 4 pm to 7 pm – 54.36p/kWh – 60% higher than Day Rate.
Day Rate: 7 pm to 4 am and 7 am to 1 pm – set as the standard Flexible Octopus rate for your area.
Outgoing Octopus
This BETA energy tariff was first released in 2019 and is the first of its kind in the UK. This unique tariff is actually focused on export, tailored for homes with battery storage, solar panels, and any other ways of sharing energy back to the grid. This is perfect for home battery storage customers, allowing people to get paid for energy rather than paying for it.
This scheme can be used under a variable (Agile) or fixed rate. The fixed-rate version guarantees a flat 15 p/kWh for every unit you export, while Outgoing Agile instead works on dynamic pricing, taking prices every half an hour based on wholesale rates. This allows you to really make the most of your smart grid with your battery storage, both ingoing and outgoing.
Historic Energy Tariffs
There are also historic economical energy tariffs that some households may still benefit from, the most common being Economy 7 and Economy 10.
Find Out the Best Battery Storage System for You
Here at Home Battery Storage UK, we supply the complete SOLAX range at an extremely competitive rate. Our products include AC chargers and Hybrid Solar Inverters as well as batteries. Find out more about our products here or contact us today to place your order!
Home Battery Storage is a trade supplier of SolaX power products. Get your trade enquires in today!
The information within this page is correct at the time of writing. However, energy tariffs are subject to change at short notice and can be quite volatile. Please contact an energy supplier directly to get the most accurate and relevant information.
