(Nettavisen) When you use electricity, you usually pay a price that follows the spot price on the electricity exchange Nordpool.
But this is far from the only price available for electricity, and now the electricity company Tibber is launching a new service that allows you to access parts of the other prices.
– The usual electricity price is set the day before for one hour at a time, but wind and sun mean that it varies much more than this. It could be, for example, that it suddenly blows more or a cloud appears in the sky, says Tibber CEO Edgeir Aksnes to Nettavisen.
Several electricity markets
Because while the spot price is based on what power companies and producers believe electricity consumption will be the following day, there are two other electricity prices to ensure that production and consumption actual is completely in balance at all times. In technical terms, this is called the intraday market.
– Just as large industry has had access to a “secret electricity market” where you have access to a price that can be better than the spot price, ordinary consumers will now have access to this, he says.
– Just as Statnett pays the industry to reduce its electricity consumption for short periods, people with ordinary homes will also be able to get paid without having to lift a finger, he adds.
In these markets, you can both offer to use less electricity if necessary, or increase production, depending on what the need is.
Statnett has previously been crystal clear that precisely this type of flexibility is something we must have much more of in the future.
Currently only for electric cars
– Tibber customers can make money helping the power grid by using smart technology they already have. We start with electric car chargers, and as long as smart charging is activated and the car is connected to Tibber, we can automatically start or stop charging for short periods without the users noticing. The car is of course fully charged when they have decided that it should be, continues Aksnes.
In concrete terms, they will expand the intelligence of the smart management, so that it not only takes into account the spot price – but also the so-called intraday market.
According to Tibber, they will eventually expand the market to be able to be connected to smart heaters, heat pumps, water heaters and batteries.
They are open that they do not yet know how much money they can save, not least because it will depend on future market dynamics.
