UK Grid to Drain Electric Car Batteries During High Demand

15 points by crocodiletears 3 years ago | 6 comments
  • blitzar 3 years ago
    To incentivise car owners to plug in, participants in the Octopus trial are being paid a generous sum of 15p per kilowatt hour for the electricity they send to the grid

    On the 11th February 2022, the current Octopus Energy fixed 12-month tariff is 37.29p per kWh for electricity

    "generous sum" indeed - they get to sell you electricity at 37.29p to fill up your battery, buy it back for 15p and sell to you again an hour or so later for 37.29p - repeat and rinse overnight and you have infinity pence.

    • Symbiote 3 years ago
      The Octopus EV tariff charges 7.5p/kWh at night
      • blitzar 3 years ago
        Good point well made - my mistake.

        Rinse and repeat all day instead of all night!

    • crocodiletears 3 years ago
      https://archive.fo/5au8i
      • anfilt 3 years ago
        Unless batteries get easier to change in an EV, I am not sure that this is a good idea. It's just gonna put extra cycles on the battery chemistry which is finite to begin with.
        • ianai 3 years ago
          Especially since they're not paying you what they charged you for that energy. I'd prefer they just charge you for the net energy you take out (charge-discharge), at least. It's more of a voluntary additional outlay seemingly. I think I'd just be sure to only charge my car during off-peak hours. Keep it disconnected the rest of the time. (Also why, as someone who lives where it's sunny probably 360 days per year, I'd like an EV with solar panels on it. It won't be much, but maybe enough to keep things conditioned.)