Plunge Pricing has been adopted by Octopus for first time on the public EV charging network, building on the domestic experience with the Agile Octopus smart tariff.

Plunge Pricing happens when cheap renewable generation is high and demand is low, so wholesale electricity prices fall. Drivers can get discounts for taking excess energy off the grid at these sunny and windy times. Customers get notified up to 24 hours before a Plunge Pricing event by email, push notification from their app and through Electroverse’s social media.

The Electroverse has so far trialled five of these events at over 7,500 charge points across brands like IONITY, Osprey, Blink, Be.EV, GeniePoint and Raw. Discounts to date have ranged from 15-45 per cent per kWh. There is even potential in the future for drivers to get paid to charge up their car when wholesale prices go negative.

Matt Davies, director of Octopus Electroverse, said: “This is a massive milestone: for the first time drivers can power up and pay less on the public charging network when green energy’s abundant. It isn’t your average discount - it’s revolutionising public charging and something that could never be done with petrol. We’re geared up to work with more charge point brands so we can bring this to even more people.”

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