Sunny day, strong breeze? Octopus Energy offers customers free green power

British renewable energy group Octopus Energy is rolling out a new initiative: it's offering households free electricity when too much renewable energy is produced. Historically, electricity grids worked with controllable supply from power plants that could readily scale up or down to meet demand. But the sun and wind don't obey human commands, and as the share of renewable energy continues to grow — solar and wind hit a record 12% of global power in 2022 — grid operators are struggling to mitigate periods of overgeneration.

The new 'Power-ups' program by Octopus will help tackle the issue of what to do when there's a surplus of solar and wind power. When upcoming weather conditions indicate that electricity supply is likely to exceed demand, Octopus will give participating customers a heads-up one day in advance. Power-ups usually span an hour or two, during which households receive free electricity and can do their laundry, charge a vehicle, get some batch cooking done or run a heat pump. Customers must opt-in for each Power-up to allow Octopus to balance supply and demand on a hyper-local level.