Queenstown Lakes battery flexing with Aurora Q+A

You can learn more about the Aurora battery flexing trial here.

It can be a little complicated to understand so watch the conversation, with Choi and Dave, where we break down what the trial is, how it works and other questions you might have.

Still have questions? Reach out to us at kiaora@octopusenergy.nz or call us 0800 947 867.

Video transcript and timestamps.

[00:00] Choi Jackson: Okay. All right. Hi everyone. I'm Choi from Octopus Energy and I'm here with my colleague Dave, and today we're talking about an exciting trial between us and the Aurora network.

Essentially, with the help of our Octopus customers and our smart tech, we're looking at a smarter way to support the local grid through those peak winter months and we want to show you how your home battery can play a massive part in that and how you can get paid for it.

Dave, this trial looks pretty cool, being paid extra money to discharge your battery during those peak times or better still, getting paid to self-consume that power seems unbelievable and even if you're in Arrowtown, we're talking some serious money there. So my question is that why is the Aurora network, in conjunction with us and only us, wanting to do this? What's the big why behind paying people to use their own stored energy?

[01:00] David Charlton: Yeah, thanks Choi. So the Queenstown region has grown significantly over the last while and it's predicted to keep increasing, which means we're using more and more power in the region. Traditionally the way to keep abreast of that is to build more and more poles and wires, bringing in more and more electricity from the national grid out into Queenstown. But this is a really expensive option, you know, buying new transformers and wires is very, very costly and those costs always end up being paid for by the billpayers. So, we're exploring with Aurora an alternative where we are making use of people's home batteries to provide additional support to the network at the times of highest need.

[01:54] Choi Jackson: Yeah, that's a cool offer there. Tell me what that discharge means of the battery and the timings.

[02:08] David Charlton: Yeah so at the moment with the normal rates from Octopus, you get paid for excess power that leaves your home either from your solar panels in the day or in the evening from your batteries. What we're doing here with Aurora is on top of our normal plans, Aurora crediting you for discharging your battery during peak times. Now, these peak times vary quite a lot around the network. So, somewhere in Arrowtown versus Dalefield or Glenorchy will have different peak times and we're using our Intelligent Octopus software to remotely control your battery, and to make sure it's discharging at the best possible time to meet the peak demand and as such, Aurora is then paying up to 70 cents per kilowatt-hour of that battery discharge.

[03:06] Choi Jackson: Yeah, that's some serious money so I just want to clear this up for people. You get the credit even if that power never leaves your house, right? So, why is Aurora happy to pay someone 70 cents just to run their own, let's say, their own dishwasher off their battery?

[03:24] David Charlton: Absolutely. Yeah, so the key here is that Aurora wants to encourage more people to install batteries. So, if you were running your dishwasher anyway, by having a battery in your home and discharging, you're still lowering the total load on the network. Doesn't matter if you were running your dishwasher or if it was your neighbor running something, you are discharging your battery into your home and thus the whole network is reducing that overall demand. So, that's why Aurora is crediting you whether you're consuming that power or your neighbor's consuming that power through the network.

[04:02] Choi Jackson: And so, Dave, I imagine there's a lot of customers out there with batteries, savvy customers, that could be doing some of this anyway, right? They could be setting up their battery to self-consume during those peak times if they're a customer with us, you know they're avoiding our peak rates, but this is different again and why do they actually have to get involved with this trial and why is that connection to us, Octopus, so important?

[04:33] David Charlton: Yeah, so there's two reasons. So, the technology we've got as I said will integrate directly with the battery and there's two reasons that we need to be able to do that. One is that the timing of these peaks is very specific to the region. So, as I said that's why the rates are different by individual region, and secondly once we've got that control, our systems will also then receive all the data from the battery. We'll see exactly how much it's discharging or charging, and we use that data to provide Aurora the evidence for what happened at your battery and that's the evidence we need then to claim those credits from Aurora which we then pass on and add to your account.

[05:26] Choi Jackson: Yeah, cool. And so if someone was to discharge more than what their house was consuming and ends up exporting to the grid? Now, I don't condone double-dipping of your sausage roll or maybe it should be cheese roll down in that neck of the woods, but can you actually do this here? Like, can you walk us through how those layers of credits all work during the winter peak?

[05:48] David Charlton: Yeah, absolutely. So during peak times, so typically in the evenings on weekdays over the winter. First of all when you're discharging your battery you're getting paid that credit which is anywhere from 5 cents all the way up to 70 cents. This is then in addition to what you would receive normally under our Octopus Flexi or Octopus Peaker plan. So, with those plans we pay out up to 23 cents per kilowatt-hour for exported energy. Aurora, starting this year, has also, like most of the networks, issued what they call peak injection credits which are another seven and a half cents. So in total, if you say lived in Arrowtown, you'd be making upwards of a dollar per kilowatt-hour.

[06:43] Choi Jackson: Yeah, that's some good buy-back there, that's for sure. Staying on the money side of things, we can see that the credits vary based on where you live. Some customers see a higher credit than others based on your specific location. Can you explain how those rates are defined, like is it a postcode thing or down to the specific address?

[07:09] David Charlton: Yeah, so the credit and also the timings of the peak periods are defined based on where your property connects into the physical electricity network. So generally speaking, you'll know if you're in say Arrowtown or Dalefield, but the exact line of where that boundary is, is defined by the kind of electrical maps. We've got those and if you email us or give us a call we can tell you kind of which side of that fence you might sit and exactly what the credit and the timings will be.

[07:49] Choi Jackson: Okay. Well, so if you're a keen customer or non-customer with one of those batteries that we have on our list, what do they do next?

[08:00] David Charlton: So if you're an existing customer, drop us an email or give us a call and we can tell you what those rates will be. You would then jump onto the Octopus Energy mobile app and add the battery to your account and we'll send you the instructions on how to do that, but it's very straightforward. Once that's done, you just sit back and we'll take it from there. If you're not currently a customer, you can still get in touch with us and we'll tell you if you would be eligible for this additional offer and then once you're signed up to us, we can then go through the same process where you add the battery through our mobile app.

[08:42] Choi Jackson: Okay. It seems pretty easy. So we've signed up and now, we've gone through our first month, how will those credits show on a customer's account or how would we inform customers?

[08:57] David Charlton: Yeah, so we'll be receiving the data from your battery and then at the end of each month we submit that to Aurora. That will go through an approval process. Um, they will then pass on the credits to us and then we'll pass on the credits to you as the customer onto your account. So, typically you should see the credits appear on your account similar to how you would get your normal solar credits at the moment, probably the middle of the following month. And just to reiterate, this is just for this winter and next winter, so that's from now until the end of September of this year and then for the same periods next year as well.

[09:42] Choi Jackson: Yeah, that's an exciting couple of winters ahead. I guess there's a bunch of other questions that I haven't asked you. So we'll put some more in a FAQ's section on a dedicated Octopus Lab page and if you have any other further questions for Dave or I or the team, email or give us a call and one of the energy specialists will happily help. It might be a question that we actually don't know the answer to and we can go to Aurora as well, but hopefully we can best serve you. Dave, anything else?

[10:18] David Charlton: Nah, that's it that's it for me. Thanks Choi.