tado° introduces dynamic aWATTar electricity tariff
Customers benefit from low energy prices on the European Energy Exchange on an hourly basis and save up to €730 in annual electricity costs.
Munich, 31 August 2023 – tado°, Europe’s leading provider of energy management solutions for private households, is launching its dynamic aWATTar electricity tariffs in Germany. From 1 September, customers with the HOURLY tariff from the in-house brand aWATTar can have their electricity consumption billed precisely on an hourly basis, allowing them to benefit directly from energy price fluctuations on the European Energy Exchange. Especially in combination with tado° energy management solutions for heat pumps, air conditioning or electric cars, households can significantly reduce their energy costs by shifting their electricity consumption to the cheapest and greenest hours of the day. In the case of negative electricity prices, customers even receive payment for drawing power from the grid.
How the HOURLY electricity tariff works
The HOURLY tariff is aimed at users who can be flexible about the times they consume electricity or those who tend to use more power on weekends. aWATTar buys electricity on an hourly basis from the European Energy Exchange and passes on the prices, plus grid charges and levies, to customers on a 1:1 basis. Customers receive an electricity bill each month based on their metered consumption, including the grid bill.
Customers decide when to use electricity and at what price. In the summer months, electricity is often free during the midday hours when the sun is shining. In the winter months, the free hours tend to be on weekends when winds are high. In a typical year, there are a few hundred hours when electricity prices are actually negative. These are also passed on to customers on a 1:1 basis: when money is earned through electricity consumption during these times, the amounts are credited to their aWATTar bill.
By visiting aWATTar.de or aWATTar.at customers can view the electricity prices for that day and the previous days and weeks. Each day from 2 p.m., the prices for the following day are also posted on these sites.
Smart meter required
For customers to benefit from the HOURLY tariff, a smart meter is essential. These can be obtained from the local grid operator or the regional public utility company. In some regions, regular meters can be replaced with smart meters at no charge. Alternatively, a smart meter can be purchased from aWATTar and installed by the partner company Blue Metering.
Availability
Customers in Austria can order the HOURLY tariff directly at aWATTar.at. The switch from the old electricity provider to aWATTar is performed automatically in the background. In Germany, customers can register for the tariff on aWATTar.de using their e-mail address. A customer service agent will contact interested parties within a few weeks to conclude the contract. An automated process for ordering and switching providers is already in the pipeline.
Hourly dynamic electricity tariffs benefit consumers and support the energy transition
“The expansion of renewable energies is leading to increasingly volatile electricity prices over the course of the day – and to the rise of hourly dynamic electricity tariffs in Europe,” explains Christian Deilmann, Co-Founder and CPO of tado°. “End customers want to benefit from price fluctuations and be billed precisely by the hour instead of paying an average electricity price to their energy supplier. With these solutions, we are driving forward the energy transition together.”
tado° and aWATTar – new technologies for a sustainable future
Over the last 10 years, tado° has primarily helped its customers to reduce the amount of energy they consume for heating and cooling. The aWATTar HOURLY energy tariff from tado° is one of three new products that now enable customers to significantly cut the cost of their energy. By combining technologies from tado° and aWATTar, customers mainly use energy when green power is abundant in the grid and prices are low – with a central software platform controlling when appliances draw their power. Besides the dynamic electricity tariff, tado° has introduced tado° Smart Charging, an app that manages electric car charging, and a new heat pump control, the tado° Heat Pump Connector.
Together, the tado° Heat Pump Connector and tado° Balance Heat Pump form a solution to automatically shift the energy consumption of heat pumps to times with lower electricity prices. This typically reduces the annual energy cost of operating the heat pump by €430 (27%). Given that heating and hot water account for 79% of household energy consumption, this represents a significant saving.
The tado° Smart Charging App, the solution for managing electric car charging, saves up to €300 (30%) in annual electricity costs when combined with the dynamic aWATTar energy tariffs. On the basis of European Energy Exchange prices and user settings for when the car is needed, an algorithm determines the optimal period to charge the vehicle in time for its next journey, using the greenest and cheapest electricity.
Similarly, the tado° Smart AC Control solution works automatically and in the background to ensure that air conditioning systems and air heat pumps run on the cheapest available electricity.
The combination of energy efficiency and energy price reduction saves households with a heat pump and charging station for electric cars an average of €730 per year.
Using energy management to profit from volatile energy market prices
In most households, 80 to 90% of energy consumption is for space heating and charging electric cars. With intelligent energy management, there are tremendous savings to be made here. The expansion of renewable energy sources (especially solar and wind) is making electricity prices increasingly volatile. At times when a lot of green electricity is produced and fed into the grid, electricity becomes very cheap. A surplus during particularly sunny and windy hours can even result in negative prices.
Hourly dynamic electricity tariffs, which pass on prices directly and transparently from the European Energy Exchange, allow consumers to benefit from these fluctuating electricity prices. They give users the opportunity to shift their energy consumption to cheaper hours and significantly reduce their energy costs. Automatic energy management solutions for heat pumps, electric cars and air conditioning systems perform this task for customers. They take full advantage of the varying prices of hourly dynamic electricity tariffs, working intelligently and in the background, without customers having to make any compromises on their level of comfort. As a result, customers substantially cut their annual energy costs while also helping to prevent green electricity from wind and solar power plants from going to waste.
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About tado°
tado° is the European leader in intelligent home climate management and provider of energy management solutions for residential buildings. As the only cross-manufacturer platform, tado° Smart Thermostats and services connect with any kind of heating or cooling system. Customers benefit from energy-saving technology such as Geofencing and Open Window Detection as well as dynamic energy offerings. Founded in Munich, 2011, and with 200 employees, tado° reshapes the way energy is consumed for more comfort, savings, and in sync with nature. www.tado.com
Press Contact
Annette Wiedemann
tado GmbH
Sapporobogen 6-8
80637 Munich