Octopus saving sessions

SuzeQStan

Yep just found the below - thanks for the heads up

https://www.neso.energy/news/eso-sets-out-initial-design-future-demand-flexibility-service

masonic

SuzeQStan said:

Savings sessions expected to kick off anytime now…

There have been some interesting changes to the scheme. It looks like a shift towards short-notice announcements in the morning for sessions in the evening. Individual opt-ins are no longer a requirement, with a default opt-in and individual opt-out arrangement being allowed - might be helpful to those who relied on Octopus notifying them rather than going direct to the DFS site. It also looks like the service isn't likely to be needed to maintain supply and sessions will be focused on spreading peak demand.

debitcardmayhem

Ah yes that tells us so much 
“ Changes to the DFS will allow it to compete against the other commercial tools available to the ESO control room and DFS providers and their customers would for the first time also be able to stack the service with other revenue streams, ensuring greater opportunities for consumers to realise value from using their electricity flexibly.
The evolved design for DFS will be consulted with industry over the summer, before a final design is submitted to Ofgem for approval ahead of a planned winter go live.  ”

ergo it will soon be winter oh and the OFfice for GEnerating Mistakes is on the case, Spring springs to mind…. or IIJM.

MouldyOldDough

A simple question - if I had a large battery - (say on an EV) could I charge it up for free during the saving sessions at a high rate and slowly make use of it, to power the house, for free - during the normal charge period ?

Is there a limit to the rate or number of units available during these free sessions?

mmmmikey

MouldyOldDough said:

A simple question - if I had a large battery - (say on an EV) could I charge it up for free during the saving sessions at a high rate and slowly make use of it, to power the house, for free - during the normal charge period ?

Is there a limit to the rate or number of units available during these free sessions?

Yes, of you have the right type of battery you can do this. You are limited by the capacity of the charger as well as the battery, probably easiest to explain with an example....

Suppose your battery system has a 3kW charger and a 12kWh battery, both fairly typical. 

During a one hour saving session the most you could put in the battery with charger running flat out would be 3kWh, that is 3kW (the power of the charger) x 1 hour.

In two hours you could put in 3kW x 2 hours = 6kWh and so on.

In five hours the charger could output 3 x 5 = 15kWh, but since the battery will only store 12kWh then your limited by that. The charger will stop charging when the battery is full 

Moving forward, you can use the stored energy as slowly as you like. The battery will lose a little bit of charge itself over time and also the various gizmos that make everything work use a fair bit of energy even when they are on standby. It's like putting a battery in a torch,then not using it for a long time. If you leave it too long you'll find the battery is flat even though you haven't used the torch. With domestic batteries this doesn't tend to be too much of an issue though, it just becomes significant if you have small batteries and very low usage.

Hope this answers your question and makes sense?

SuzeQStan

The issue we have is getting enough of our household energy use covered by the EV battery.

We have an EV wiith vehicle to load capacity (and dedicated EV charger) so we started out using it to power the lawnmower and chainsaw- basically anything electrical outdoors.  

Then OH set it up to power our tele and a small heater in our lounge in the evening for times when our 6.5 kWh solar battery (which we charge on cheap rate TOU tariff overnight along with our EV) has run out.  It runs out a lot in winter with lack of sun.

Using the ev battery this way involves making sure its electrical adaptor is made as waterproof as we can get it - although we tend not to use it if it’s raining.  So that is a limitation there.

I wish we could use it to power the whole house - or at least cover more of the leccy we use. 

Edit to say - realise I’ve steered thread off course apologies.  

born_again

MouldyOldDough said:

A simple question - if I had a large battery - (say on an EV) could I charge it up for free during the saving sessions at a high rate and slowly make use of it, to power the house, for free - during the normal charge period ?

Is there a limit to the rate or number of units available during these free sessions?

Saving sessions are about using less energy.
So charging your EV or battery up is not going to gain from the saving session (unless you are a seriously heavy user & stop other loads). People gained by discharging their batteries to the grid in saving sessions.

TBH, V2L is never designed for powering house, only small items. 

mmmmikey

born_again said:

MouldyOldDough said:

A simple question - if I had a large battery - (say on an EV) could I charge it up for free during the saving sessions at a high rate and slowly make use of it, to power the house, for free - during the normal charge period ?

Is there a limit to the rate or number of units available during these free sessions?

Saving sessions are about using less energy.
So charging your EV or battery up is not going to gain from the saving session (unless you are a seriously heavy user & stop other loads). People gained by discharging their batteries to the grid in saving sessions.

TBH, V2L is never designed for powering house, only small items. 

Whoops, yes, thanks, a good and crucial point in relation to the saving sessions.

The saving sessions are where you are paid an amount in return for using less energy than you usually do. Charging your batteries (ev or otherwise) during these sessions doesn't help - you make money by discharging them.

I had confused them in my mind with the more recent free electricity sessions where you were refunded for any electricity over and above your normal usage for certain hours - mostly (always?) 13:00 to 14:00. The comments I made were in relation to these sessions (or come to that any time where electricity is cheaper than you normally pay).

born_again

mmmmikey said:

I had confused them in my mind with the more recent free electricity sessions where you were refunded for any electricity over and above your normal usage for certain hours - mostly (always?) 13:00 to 14:00. The comments I made were in relation to these sessions (or come to that any time where electricity is cheaper than you normally pay).

In the free hour, I always plugged EV in, even if not required, best way of getting the most out of it 😍

Slinky

I made sure the battery was fully charged up to full beforehand and discharged it back during the savings session.