We’re often asked, “Why does Repowered sometimes purchase electricity when there’s still plenty of energy left in my battery?” It’s a logical question! After all, when the battery is full, you naturally want to use that energy. If you draw your power from the battery, you don’t have to pay any transmission or procurement costs. So that always seems like the more economical option, but it’s not always the smartest choice.
Our system constantly monitors where energy is most valuable at any given moment. We optimize on two levels:
The day-ahead market
One day in advance, we buy and sell electricity on the day-ahead market. We purchase electricity to cover expected consumption, and for the battery, we try to sell it during the most expensive times.
In this phase, we do not yet link consumption and the battery. We do this intentionally: it is often more valuable to use the battery to sell electricity on the market than to cover our own consumption.
The imbalance market (actual control)
In real time, on theimbalance market, we intelligently control the battery using our Optima algorithm. In doing so, we take into account both current prices and local consumption. If it’s advantageous to save on transmission costs by drawing power from the battery, we’ll do that. But if the market price is so high that it’s more cost-effective to discharge the battery into the grid, Optima will choose that option.
In short
We always choose the most valuable use of your battery. Sometimes that means local consumption from the battery; other times, it means selling power back to the grid.
Not using our new Optima system yet? Then we’re not yet optimizing at this combined level. With Optima, we take your local consumption and transmission costs into account, making the use of your battery even smarter and more precisely tailored.
What are transmission charges?
You pay transmission charges to your grid operator for using the electricity grid: for the (net) consumption of electricity.
