How FlexiO can further control your energy costs on sunny days and contribute to a stable grid

From now on, FlexiO, our smart control, can do even more for you. With the latest improvements and functionalities, FlexiO not only helps you optimize your energy consumption, but also reduce your costs and contribute to a more stable energy grid. Let's take a look at how FlexiO can control your energy bills on sunny days and what the latest updates mean for you.

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The Challenge of Sunny Days

On sunny days, when electricity demand is low, you may have to pay to put power back on the grid. This happens depending on your energy rate and market conditions. When solar panels produce a lot of energy but home consumption is low, you may have to pay a fee to feed your excess energy back to the grid. This can lead to unexpected charges on your energy bill.

During sunny days, combined with low electricity demand (e.g. on weekends), the value of electricity produced becomes very low, due to market forces of supply and demand. It happens more and more that the production of (solar) power is even so high that the grid becomes "overcrowded" and, as a result, costs have to be incurred by the various grid operators. The result is that the value of the electricity becomes negative becomes negative!

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This obviously has a big advantage for people with a dynamic energy contract: after all, when you consume energy at that moment, you are paid* to take power from the grid. However, this also has the consequence that you have to pay at such times when you inject power into the grid.

*on the consumption you still pay the costs linked to the distribution of electricity (approx. 0,12€/kWh)

Did you know that in 2023 there were a total of 222 hours with a negative power price ( ~ 2.5% of the year)? This year, as of 31/08, the counter already stood at 355, an increase of more than 50%....

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How FlexiO helps

FlexiO is now coming up with a new strategy to avoid the potential cost of injection with negative prices. This strategy is as follows: 

1. Commit to self-consumption: FlexiO helps ensure that your generated solar energy is first optimally consumed for your own energy needs. This consumption can be increased by, for example, starting to control your charging station when you have surplus solar power.
2. Store in home battery: If your direct or FlexiO-controlled consumption is lower than your production from the solar panels, FlexiO stores the excess solar energy in your home battery for later consumption. 
3. Avoidance of injection: If the home battery is fully filled, you cannot consume enough solar power yourself AND electricity prices are still negative, FlexiO will actively adjust/decrease the output of your solar panels to avoid injecting power into the grid. We call this injection curtailment (often the English term "PV curtailment" is used for this). As a result, FlexiO prevents you from having to pay to put energy back into the grid. 

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Benefits for YOU and our Electricity Grid!

Through FlexiO you not only get the most out of your energy bill, but you also contribute to a more stable energy grid by matching local supply and demand fully automatically. Thus, together we not only balance the grid, but the necessary expansion of renewable energy can continue, which is good for everyone!

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