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?
Homeowners can now gain access to wholesale energy markets through Amber Electric. This allows homeowners to take advantage of the real-time cost of electricity, which changes every 5 minutes. This means customers can take advantage of low energy prices when the cost of electricity can be lower than the standard flat tariff that is on offer from traditional energy retailers.
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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
H2-X.xk-S2
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Ecactus
WH Series Single Phase
WH Series Single Phase
Delta
Ocular
Sungrow
Sunways
EIAW-E22KTSE5A04
Ocular IQ Solar
STS 3-6 kW
SG5K-D
SGX.ORS
SHX.ORS
SHX.ORS
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
Is my System Compatible?
CATCH Control is compatible with a wide range of inverter brands, allowing flexible integration with your existing solar setup. For a full list of compatible inverter brands please check this table.
Do I need Wi-Fi for Wholesale pricing?
Yes, if no off peak is available or your Wi-Fi signal is weak, we can't correctly communicate with your system and make decisions on how to manage your energy based on current wholesale pricing.
Does Green CATCH work with Wholesale Pricing?
If you have a Green CATCH on site and are participating in wholesale energy markets, when you receive a pricing signal to discharge your batteries, Green will see this as surplus and send this energy to your hot water system. In this case we recommend a CATCH Control device, as we can heat your hot water based on price.
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
How does CATCH Power work with negative feed in prices?
CATCH Control receives 5 minute pricing data and can curtail your inverter so you do not export energy to the grid. In some cases it may even halt production all together so you can import energy and be paid to consume energy from the grid.
I have an existing CATCH Control can I update my device and take part in Wholesale energy prices?
We recommend contacting CATCH Power before completing a firmware update on your device, depending on the age of the device, you can loose critical settings, that may affect the performance of your device. Depending on how the device was commissioned, you may also need to have your installer make physical changes to your inverter, so it will act on pricing signals.
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