Octopus Energy draws positive conclusions from pilot of grid support with private solar power systems in Texas

The internationally active British green energy supplier Octopus Energy is satisfied with the results of the »Sunny Money« pilot trial in the US state of Texas, in which during last August the solar power fed into the grid by customers as part of Octopus’ »Solar Buyback Program«, which has been running since 2021, was purchased by electricity traders. This was intended to relieve the strain on the Texas power grid, which is particularly fragile during the hot season.
A software ensures in the program that the time at which each kilowatt hour is fed into the grid is recorded. In the pilot test, the applicable wholesale trading price was paid. Due to the high demand, this partially resulted in very high prices, which in turn were an incentive for the participating solar system owners to supply as much electricity as possible to the grid. One customer cited by Ocopus Energy as an example received an average of 66 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour for his solar power, totaling $908 for the month of August. Compared to conventional net metering, which is the payment of the electricity fed into the grid at the respective customer's purchase rate, the revenues in the pilot test were up to five times higher, the company said. A total of 180,000 kilowatt hours were fed into the grid and compensated with almost 36,000 dollars.
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