Free Energy? How Renewables and Intelligent Energy Management Can Make This Dream Come True

The smarter E Podcast Episode 177 | May 30, 2024 | Language: English

Demand-side flexibility is essential for an energy system, with an increasing number of decentralized and renewable energy resources. Both the energy system and society in general rely on consumers who adapt their energy consumption to the available grid capacity. Digitalization and new technologies such as smart meters and market-based solutions are turning consumers into active players.

So how could demand-side flexibility be incentiviced and what could flexibility marketing look like in different sectors? And which role do home batteries and the aggregation of small producers and consumers play?

Kieron Stopforth, Senior Manager at Octopus Energy Group reveals that and more.

Timeline:

02:04 Why is demand-side flexibility essential for a flexible energy system?
08:55 Which assets have the biggest potential for flexibility?
11:22 What about the homeowners' batteries to store grid electricity when it is cheap so that it can be fed back into the grid at times of high prices?
15:30 What conditions must an electricity market fulfill for a business model like Octopus Energy Group with flexibility to work?
20:25 What needs to be done to make better use of existing flexibility potential and how can people be motivated to make their flexibility available?

About The smarter E Podcast

The smarter E podcast is all about the current trends and developments in a renewable, decentralized and digital energy industry. Our moderators Tobias Bücklein and Zackes Brustik welcome and interview personalities who shape our industry and drive developments forward. A new episode is published every Thursday.

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About Kieron Stopforth and Octopus Energy

Kieron Stopforth, Senior Manager bei der Octopus Energy Group

Kieron is Senior Manager at Octopus Energy Group. He is responsible for delivering new customer propositions making energy more flexible. His work includes creating Saving Sessions, the largest UK customer demand shift programme ever with 1.9GWh shifted over 14.5 hours from 700,000 customers, and Intelligent Octopus, the largest smart charging virtual power plant in the UK with 800MW and 125,000 electric vehicles. Kieron is a Fulbright Scholar and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Octopus Energy is on a mission to profoundly change the universe by building a truly sustainable energy system worldwide. The company strives to make energy greener, smarter and more affordable for all. Customers are at the center of everything Octopus Energy does: with always fair prices, transparency and outstanding customer service. The company is driving systemic change with transformative technology to make renewable energy the norm and end global dependence on fossil fuels.

The Octopus Energy Group consists of 10 companies spanning 6 countries on 3 continents, including Octopus Energy Retail, Kraken Technologies, Octopus Energy Generation, Kraken Flex, Octopus Electric Vehicles and the Octopus Centre for Net Zero.

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The smarter E Europe Conference 2023

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The pressing need to mitigate the impact of climate change and to deal with the ongoing energy crisis requires a new regulatory framework in Europe. This is why the European Commission has presented a legislative proposal for the adaptation of the EU Electricity Market Design in Q1 2023. But how would this new framework impact the energy storage market? How would the provision of flexibility be encouraged? How would existing entry barriers for energy storage be further reduced? In this panel, representatives from the EU, utilities, IPPs and storage providers will be discussing whether the new market design is suitable for incentivizing both the necessary energy storage installations and ideas for future improvements.

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Technology is the key to battery storage markets developing at a rapid pace. Just look at the way system costs have dropped drastically in recent years as a result of progress in the development of battery materials and battery cells and advancement in storage system technology.In the diverse stationary markets in particular, opportunities for technological alternatives to the lithium-ion battery are being opened up. In this session, you can hear from experts directly about current progress in the development of specific battery technologies and learn about the impact those battery technologies are set to have on the market for electrical energy storage systems in the near future.