Control Your Energy Bills with Real-Time Pricing from CATCH Control and Amber
Control Your Energy Bills with Real-Time Pricing from CATCH Control and Amber
Control Your Energy Bills with Real-Time Pricing from CATCH Control and Amber
Get Paid to Heat Your Water or Charge Your EV with CATCH Control and Amber!
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What are wholesale Energy Plans
Wholesale prices are the rates at which energy retailers purchase electricity from the wholesale electricity market. In Australia, this market is regulated by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), which sets prices every 5 minutes. These prices fluctuate based on supply and demand, encouraging more power generation when the grid needs it and less when it doesn't.
What are wholesale Energy Plans?
Wholesale energy plans charge homeowners based on the real-time cost of electricity, which changes every 5 minutes. This means the cost of electricity can be lower when there is a lot of renewable energy in the grid or when demand is low and feed in tariffs can skyrocket when there is high demand.
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Understanding Price Volatility and Spikes
Wholesale energy prices can be highly volatile. This means that the cost of electricity can change significantly within short periods, sometimes every 5 minutes.
Causes of Price Volatility:
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Supply and Demand Fluctuations: Prices drop when there is an abundance of renewable energy and lower demand. Alternatively, prices can spike when demand is high or supply is low.
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Grid Stability Issues: Events like power plant outages, extreme weather conditions, or sudden spikes in demand can cause price surges.
Impact of Volatility:
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Price Spikes: During times of high demand or low supply, wholesale prices can spike dramatically. For example, on hot summer days when air conditioning use is high, prices can rise sharply.
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Potential Cost Increase: While there are opportunities to save money, there’s also a risk that during peak times, your electricity costs can be higher than with a traditional fixed-rate plan.
Benefits of Wholesale Energy Plans?
Wholesale energy plans offer potential savings by providing access to real-time energy prices that fluctuate throughout the day based on market conditions. This means you can take advantage of lower prices during periods of high renewable energy generation, potentially reducing your bills. Additionally, these plans are transparent, showing a detailed breakdown of costs without any retail markup. However, the prices can be volatile, changing every 5 minutes, which can make your bills unpredictable.
Until now, it was commonly believed that you required batteries to make wholesale energy plans worth it. With CATCH Power, we can take control of your usage, controlling not only inverters and batteries but loads like EV Chargers and Electric Hot Water system. Allowing you to optimise your total home energy usage and helping you increase your savings.
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Benefits of Traditional billing
Traditional energy plans, on the other hand, offer price stability with fixed rates, making your bills predictable and easier to budget for. These plans require less active management and are simpler to understand, as you pay the same rate regardless of when you use electricity. However, they often include a retail markup, which means you might end up paying more for your electricity compared to wholesale plans.
We do things a little differently to Amber's Smart Shift
CATCH Control and Amber Smart Shift offer distinct approaches to managing energy usage, each with unique features and capabilities. While Amber acts as the retailer providing access to the wholesale market, CATCH Control integrates seamlessly with Amber's API to offer advanced energy management solutions, effectively joining the dots between your home energy system and the wholesale market.
CATCH Control provides real-time energy management based on true 5-minute wholesale pricing data accessed directly through Amber’s API. This allows for immediate and precise adjustments to energy usage, optimising efficiency and savings
Due to CATCH Control working as the on-site energy meter, it reacts quickly to market signals and changes in conditions, allowing for individual commands to specific loads, such as inverters, batteries, hot water systems and EV chargers. By integrating at the heart of your solar system, CATCH Control can provide a higher degree of control and efficiency, ensuring flexible and effective energy management across your home’s energy system.
CATCH Control can curtail any inverter it is integrated with, resulting in a higher compatibility list for the wholesale market. This flexibility allows users to control a wide range of inverters, optimising your energy usage effectively. CATCH Control's ability to control batteries, dedicated circuits and EV's allows for greater control for a volatile market.
When it comes to data timing and accuracy, CATCH Control uses real-time 5-minute pricing data, accessed through Amber’s API. This enables more precise and timely adjustments to energy usage based current conditions, please note Ambers pricing is still billed in 30 minute averages.
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Compatible Brand
Inverter
Battery
EV Charger
Fronius
Sungrow
ESY SUNHM
FIMER
Goodwe
Growatt
Jinko
Gen 24 / Primo
BYD
Watt Pilot
SG5K-D/SGX.ORS/ SHX.ORS
GE
Sungrow SBR HV LFP
HM6
HM6
UNO- DM
GE Hybrid
In Progress
MS/NS/Gen3
NS DNS/ MS
In Progress
Min 7-10K
Min 2.5-6K
JKS-XXHLVS
curtailment
Sungrow
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SAJ
Solis
SMA
SolaX
H2-X.xk-S2
R5-X.xK-S2-15
R6-x-xk-S3
SOFAR
Sunny Boy
Sofar 3-10 KTLM-G3
ESI 3-6K-S1
HYD 3-6 EP
SolaX-1
Solis 1P5K-4G
Solis S5 Series
Solplanet
ASWXXXXH-G2
ASWXXXXS-A
Hauwei
Hauwei - sun2000
ASWXXXXH-G2
ASWXXXXS-A
Working with your System.
One of the key advantages of CATCH Control is its flexibility. CATCH Control can be used with almost any inverter on the market. Installed as the energy meter for your inverter and controlling loads for your Home Energy Management System (HEMS).
Centralised Energy Management:
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Energy Meter: CATCH Control accurately monitors your energy consumption and production.
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Inverter Control: It manages solar production and export, ensuring efficient use of generated energy.
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Battery Management: CATCH Control optimises battery storage, charging, and discharging based on real-time energy prices.
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Load Control: CATCH Control schedules and controls loads such as hot water systems and EV charging, maximising your self-consumption and minimising reliance on grid electricity.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if there isn't enough solar to heat my hot water?
Green CATCH's goal is to reach thermostatic cut-off on your hot water tank. There are a number of algorithms built into Green's operations as a fall back if cut-off is missed during the day. How the device operates is dependent on what setting the device is in. You can read more on our user guide here.
I don't have Off- Peak will Green CATCH still work for me?
Yes, if no Off- Peak is hard wired into the device, Green will know that Off- Peak is not available instead any boosting if required will occur between 11pm - 3am.
Does Green CATCH work with a Dual Element?
Green CATCH does not have the ability to determine if it is working with the top or bottom element, due to this it will limit the overall efficiency of the device. For this reason we recommend disconnecting the top element, to allow Green CATCH to have full control
Does Green CATCH work with batteries?
Yes, Green CATCH works great with batteries but it does require a slightly different installation method. If you add Batteries after your Solar and Green CATCH are installed, please make sure these adjustments are made to the device. Green CATCH Installation with Batteries
Does Green CATCH work on 3phase sites?
Although Green CATCH is a single phase device, this stop it working on 3phase sites. This just means Green CATCH is only capable of monitoring one of the 3-phases, so yes it will work but not as effectively as it could. CATCH will be seeing one third of the export. For this reason we recommend a minimum 9kW's for 3phase sites.
We do not recommend Green CATCH on 3phase Hybrid sites.
Who can install Green CATCH?
Any licensed electrician can install Green CATCH, we offer full training and support for new and existing installers.
What is the difference between Green CATCH and a Timer?
Green CATCH is a smart hot water diverter that uses real-time data and advanced algorithms to optimise energy usage. It detects surplus solar energy and diverts it to your hot water system, maximizing solar power use and reducing reliance on grid electricity. Only calling on the grid when needed. In contrast, a timer simply turns your hot water system on and off at preset times, without considering of household loads or solar production. This can lead to higher energy costs and less efficient use of solar power.
How can I tell if Green CATCH is working?
Even through Green CATCH does not have any monitoring, you can still determine it is working by your normal consumption monitoring graphs. Check the Working with your System to see how to determine if Green CATCH is working. If you have a 3phase site, your graphs will only show your consumption as 1/3 of the consumption, due to it only monitoring one phase.
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