Octopus Energy US partners with Enphase, plans virtual power plant in ERCOT

Renewable energy retailer Octopus Energy U.S. formed a new partnership with Enphase Energy, to provide its customers the opportunity to add Enphase home solar + battery systems in their energy plan. As part of the deal, Octopus Energy plans to create a virtual power plant with the Enphase home battery systems, and bid the capacity of the distributed energy resources (DERs) in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) ancillary markets.

Kraken Flex makes this possible. It is Octopus Energy’s proprietary software platform for managing, controlling, and optimizing DER. With it, Octopus Energy can optimize how a customer’s battery interacts with the electric grid through Intelligent Octopus, its smart device retail energy plan, customers can access the cheapest retail rates.

“Load flexibility creates enormous value in high-renewable energy grids and energy retailers have a unique ability to customize electric rates for customers, so this a perfect opportunity to integrate the value of demand response into a retail product to create the cheapest rates for customers,” said Michael Lee, CEO of Octopus Energy U.S. “Retailers have the opportunity to lead the energy transition by combining customer-centric product offerings, modern technology, and rate-making authority to create products that lower costs and truly lower carbon.”

While still somewhat new in the U.S., Octopus Energy is one of the most awarded energy companies in the United Kingdom, where the company was founded five years ago. Octopus Energy entered the U.S. market in 2020 and launched Octopus Electric Vehicles in 2022, its integrated demand response EV leasing plan, as well as Intelligent Octopus, a smart demand response plan which lowers electric rates by up to 30 percent just by allowing Octopus to automate smart charging for the customer.

As Octopus Energy expands its retail energy presence to states outside of Texas, Octopus Energy hopes to take advantage of this partnership, which both reduces costs for customers and promotes a cleaner grid.

— Solar Builder magazine

[source: https://solarbuildermag.com/residential-solar/octopus-energy-us-partners-with-enphase-plans-virtual-power-plant-in-ercot/]