Margaret Cooney: Octopus Energy COO on the report finding that shifting electricity use to off-peak hours could save billions

More flexible electricity use could save the country billions of dollars.  

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority's new report finds about 18 hundred megawatts of demand could be shifted away from peak times. 

Their analysis found $3 billion dollars could be saved without changing how people live and work. 

Octopus Energy COO Margaret Cooney told Ryan Bridge it might mean that instead of putting your dishwasher on at 7pm, when there’s still a lot of demand on the grid, you put the timer on for 11pm.  

She says it would help us avoid having to invest in really expensive infrastructure, save consumers money, and allow for more energy users and renewables to be integrated into the system faster. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And you report out this morning reckons. Shifting to more
off peak electricity use could wipe three billion bucks a
year off our power bills collectively. Of course, the Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Authority found a quarter of on peak
of peak demand. I should say this is like your
winter evenings could be moved to quieter times using existing
technology without changing how we live and work. Sounds great.

(00:23):
Margaret Koney is Octopus Energy Chief operating officer, joins me
this morning, Margaret, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
So how does this work? Am I going to shift?
Do I do my instead of doing my washing in
the evening, do it during the day or what are
we talking about here?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
There's essentially so as a customer, you would be shifting
your energy usage to those times when it's hopefully when
it should be cheaper for you as a customer. And
so that might mean that rather than putting the dishwasher
around at seven o'clock at night, when it's still there's
still a lot of demand on the gridge, put the

(01:00):
timer on at that point and the dishwasher goes on
at say eleven, when there's much less pressure on the
electricity grid. And one of the great things about that
is that one that it will save It will help
us a always having to invest in really expensive infrastructure.
It will save consummans money. And the other thing is

(01:24):
it will help us into great more energy users and
more renewables into the system much more quickly, because one
of the quite interesting things is most of the time
that there is lots of available bandwidth essentially on our

(01:45):
electricity system, apart from in those peak times at the morning,
in the morning around breakfast, and in the evening around
dinner time. Outside of those times, we've got lots of
opportunity to shift usage around and yeah, grow out grow
our usage of electricity, which should be good for consumers

(02:07):
and businesses.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
If we all start delaying our dishwashers till eleven PM
and they all go on eleven pm, do we not
create a new peak? You know, many peaks.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
It's a good point. You can soften the peak. But
one of the things that starting to become available, and
we make this available for consumers with new evs, is
that we can actually directly manage when when some appliances
go on so in return for a further discount, consumers

(02:43):
if they link the EV and this could be a
heat pump or hot water system. We can then select
that when that appliants goes on within the limits that
the customer sets us around what they need, and that
would avoid that convergence thing that you're talking about. But

(03:04):
in the short term that's not a problem for New Zealand.
Just shifting out of the peak is what we should
be aiming for immediately.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
So you do octopus, you would control you'd be able
to turn on my EV charger or turn on my
washing machine or whatever at a certain time if I
give you permission.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, we actually already control about ten percent of the
UK's event that technology is there. It's getting much better.
Lots of the plants manufacturers, even Fisher and Piper locally
investing lots of effort in trying to work out how

(03:43):
they can make their applants is more interoperable and speak
with there with the energy companies in the market system.
So this is a space where technology is moving so
quickly and there is a huge amount of potential benefit
for are consumers directly but also New Zealand. And you know,

(04:04):
it's one of the spaces that really excites me as
someone in the industry.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, well, it's one of those cases where I would
be more than happy for you to take over. And
you know you do the maths, you do the hard work,
and I will just get a cheaper power bill. Thank
you very much, Margaret Kearney, appreciate your time. Octopus Energy
Chief Operating Opposite. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
listen live to News Talks it Be from five am weekdays,

(04:32):
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio