Octopus enables cheap public charging

Electric car drivers in Britain can benefit from cheaper public charging through an innovation from Octopus Electroverse.

The company has enabled ‘Plunge Pricing’ events 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 sunny and windy times.

Electroverse has so far trialled five of these events at more than 7,500 charge points across brands like IONITY, Osprey, Blink, Be.EV, GeniePoint and Raw. Discounts to date have ranged from 15%-45% per kWh.

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.

Hundreds of customers have already taken part and saved £6.50 on average on a single charge.

‘Agile Octopus’ was the firm’s first tariff to unlock time-of-use pricing, enabling customers to save money when wholesale prices drop, and even make money when they go negative. Over the last year, that tariff has seen almost 300 ‘Plunge Pricing’ events.

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 charge point brands so we can bring this to even more people.” 

Image courtesy of Octopus Energy