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Posted 15 February 2024
Octopus Power Pack: Vehicle-to-Grid tariff - free EV charging (V2G-compatible electric car and charger needed)
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Chanchi32 Deal editor
Joined in 2013
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About this deal
Octopus have just launched a new beta tariff Octopus Power pack, which you can add to a regular tariff. If you meet the criteria, then you are able to get free EV Charging. You will need a V2G-compatible electric car and charger, and your vehicle must be CHAdeMO compatible, list of compatible vehicles. You need to be able to charge approximately six hours a day and charge less than 333kWh per month (equivalent to 1,084 miles of driving). Octopus claim that a typical V2G driver could save £880 per year compared to Flexible Octopus, and £180 compared to Intelligent Octopus Go. Deal link goes to the signup form if eligible.
How Octopus Power Pack works:
Works alongside your existing tariff
Get the same great rate for export
To join, you’ll need:
How Octopus Power Pack works:
- Automated charging, both ways
- Plug your car and tell us how much charge you need. We’ll automatically schedule your car to fill up when energy is greenest, and then export back to power your neighbourhood when the grid needs help.
Works alongside your existing tariff
- Power Pack is an add-on tariff that sits alongside your usual import tariff. You’ll continue paying your great rate for your home energy use, but your EV charging will be free. It works with most tariffs, but not Tracker, Agile (import or export), or our Intelligent Octopus tariffs.
Get the same great rate for export
- On top of your free miles from Octopus Power Pack, if you already export to the grid via home solar panels or batteries, you’ll get paid for that power at your usual rate (find out more).
To join, you’ll need:
- A compatible charger: a Wallbox Qasar V2G charger
- A compatible EV car: (check our list of compatible vehicles)
- A smart electricity meter we can connect to
- Permission to export energy to your local distribution network (aka a G99 certificate): contact the DNO (distribution network operator) for your area if you need one.
- A schedule that fits: You'll need to be able to plug in for roughly 12 hours a day every couple of days, and charge less than 333kWh per month (equivalent to 1,084 miles of driving). We're not fussed if you occasionally miss these targets, but if it's a regular occurrence, you'll need to hop off Power Pack.
More details at Octopus Energy has currently £50 credit for you and the referrer when you sign up with Octopus Energy campaign, if you want to use it you can do so from this .
Community Updates
Edited by Chanchi32, 15 February 2024
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210 Comments
sorted byTry to understand the word
Given chademo cars tend to be older with less range I really don't see someone with one of these cars charging that much over even 10 years, not to mention the likely battery degradation on these early batteries which don't have cooling in some cases.
Would be interested to see how they came up with their savings calculation.
Just use the go/flux tariffs. (edited)
But if charger would be cheaper V2G would be viable solution for solar battery storage - as long as there is space by the house, buy crashed Nissan Leaf without damage to battery and charging and you have massive (pun intended) solar battery storage
Tesla wall has 13.5kWh and cost £10k - Leaf way cheaper
Chademo is only really used on Japanese and Korean cars and is pretty much being phased oht around the world, combined with requiring a special charger.. dont see this taking off.
Check before you talking nonsense
Make sure the system uses Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) as these are relatively cheaper than the higher energy density Lithium Cobolt type used in most EVs and these also love to be charged to 100% and are usually guaranteed for at least 10 years.
There are so many variations as to use so you'll have to run your own figures, (we also use the washing machine in the off peak hrs), but my initial estimates were a 3.5 year payback time (and that was when we paid 20% vat on top)
Heres yesterdays charge/discharge curve
Ive had a 9.6kW battery storage system running for just over a year which charges up (within 3 hrs) at night on Octopus Go at 9p/kW, then we use that same energy to power the house during the day when it would normally cost 30p/kW.
No solar or anything else involved - and since 1st Feb '24 theres NO VAT at all to pay on battery storage systems
Roughly 83% of our total electricity usage is at the 9p/kW rate (I charge an EV once a week as well) (edited)
Only chademo does, and has for a decade or so.
1) will cost hundreds of billions & decades to implement and who will pay for it as energy companies certainly won't and neither will car manufacturers. Who will pay the millions for people to run, maintain & service the system? Govt won't either as you might have noticed they've bankrupted the country
2) creating a system compatible across dozens of different chargers and smart meters
3) why create a system to virtually replicate a petrol station when there's a system in place already that can tax EVs for free without any inevitable issues that will plague an EV tax charging system? Spoiler it's called car duty (edited)
Just like all the people paying for the other energy that's not 'free' for a handful of other people who like the Ponzi energy market and think there's 'free' energy.
Nissan Leaf
Nissan e-NV200
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV
What's rhe best selling car in the world of last quarter? Tesla model y. An ev
That's a CCS2 socket - completely incompatible with the Chademo plug.
There were a couple of other hidden betas too IIRC.
The difference was that they paid people to feed back into the grid, much like solar. Except it was a better deal (basically the opposite of agile Octopus). So if you fed back in during peak periods, you'd get paid more. But you didn't get free charging. It worked out much better though for those who had solar and could charge during the day and then sell it back in the evening.
youtu.be/Op5…2tn
I think one of the reasons for the Chademo limitation is that individual CCS equipped vehicles may have a V2L capability but I don't think V2G is yet part of the general spec unlike Chademo. YMMV
Ended up just with a standard charger and jumping to Agile at that time and wound up paying pennies as COVID shutdowns caused so much excess energy on the grid.
The most popular connector on EV's, CCS, does not support V2G - at least not yet.