EV drivers in Britain can benefit from cheaper public charging when green energy is abundant thanks to a new innovation from the Octopus Electroverse app.
So-called ‘plunge pricing’ events happen when cheap renewable generation is high and demand is low, so wholesale electricity prices fall. Drivers using Octopus’ Electroverse get discounts for taking excess energy off the grid at these times.
Octopus introduced plunge pricing for home charging in 2018 and now it has trialled five of these events at over 7,500 chargepoints at IONITY, Osprey, Blink, Be.EV, GeniePoint and Raw hubs.
Electroverse customers get notified up to 24 hours before a ‘Plunge Pricing’ event by email, push notification from their app and via Electroverse’s social media.
Discounts to date have ranged from 15%-45% per kWh, with customers saving £6.50 on average on a single charge. Octopus says drivers could save up to £250 a year as a result of this new service. The company adds that there is even potential in the future for drivers to get paid to charge up their car when wholesale prices go negative.
Octopus expects to have dozens of plunge pricing events over the next year, with plans to expand the innovation across more chargepoint brands in the future.
Matt Davies, director of Octopus Electroverse, said: “This is a massive milestone: for the first time drivers can power up and pay less on the public charging network when green energy’s abundant. It isn’t your average discount – it’s revolutionising public charging and something that could never be done with petrol. We’re geared up to work with more chargepoint brands so we can bring this to even more people.”
