https://octopus.energy/blog/agile-pricing-explained/

Also wind turbine curtailment when it is very windy is both larger and more common than solar farm curtailment when it is sunny. Hence wind tends to have a bigger impact than solar.

It is going to be interesting when the majority of energy in the UK falls under CfD contracts. The older renewable sites under ROC contracts may well get all repowered over time. 

There is simply not enough solar on the grid to meet demand, even when it's very sunny, so solar alone is not enough to shift the price.

Google tells me there is approx 19GW of solar installed in the UK, and looking at today's data, solar output peaked at 10.47GW at around 11:30am, whilst demand was 32.4GW (I acknowledge today wasn't overly sunny across the whole of the UK). With daytime demand at around 30-35GW, solar is rarely going to cause negative pricing by itself, especially when combined with little wind on a sunny still day.

Even with large amounts of solar, we are still using some FF generation (gas), and as we all know, that sets the price as the highest bidder.

There are seven negative price half-hour slots tomorrow. Would be interesting to see what's the electricity mix. I would assume a lot of wind but also good solar in the mix. Surprising not to see free electricity from Octopus though.

There are 30 plus HH’s tomorrow where Octopus Agile are eager to throw kWh’s to you and pay you to take them! Greeen Toodles (On Cosy).

@toodles But surprisingly Octopus are not giving any free electricity tomorrow (for non agile customers) like they used to give last summer and even until October 2025. I wonder what level of negative rates make them give free electricity to everyone. My EV wouldn't mind a few free miles!!

Posted by: @toodles

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There are 30 plus HH’s tomorrow where Octopus Agile are eager to throw kWh’s to you and pay you to take them! Greeen Toodles (On Cosy).

You're not wrong, @toodles.

Not only is that a lot of blue, 11.59p is a lot per kWh for them to be paying us to take their leccy.

@chandykris Fortunately, with a light load on the heat pump at present, my 28 kWh’s of Powerwall are topped up by lunchtime, the Sunamp heat battery then tops up to Max Temp, and the dinner has been cooked and consumed whilst we export a few kWh’s to the grid. (We have 8.1 kWp. of solar panels) The Tesla system seems to keep in contact with the grid every minute or so and seems to draw ~100 watts per day - otherwise, our grid consumption would be zero. Regards, Toodles.

Posted by: @chandykris

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@toodles But surprisingly Octopus are not giving any free electricity tomorrow (for non agile customers) like they used to give last summer and even until October 2025. I wonder what level of negative rates make them give free electricity to everyone. My EV wouldn't mind a few free miles!!

With our Intelligent EV rate at 3.5p/kwh (since the gov dropped the ECO tax), it feels free... too good to be true

@batpred I wonder if a Sinclair C5 would count as an EV?

@toodles 

Better, you just need an EV charger!

@batpred Unfortunately, we were on Octopus Go variable and decided to move to Octopus Go fixed thanks to geopolitical chaos, and ended up at 9.5p per kWh. Sounds extortionate when compared to your 3.5p!! So, don't mind some free electricity for our EV.