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Noisy Boysie avatar image
Noisy Boysie asked

octopus and controlling charging

hi all

Been trying to work out how to control the charging based on the cheapest charging block based on the octopus cheapest agile rate for any given day and to automate this

I went though all sorts of options and found the follwing solution and hopfully if it document it it will help others

I use the follwoing components

Node-red
MQTT
SQLite
Linux (anything you like, mine is a VM on hyper-V)
octopus node (https://github.com/borpin/node-red-contrib-octopus)
Cebro + enable MQTT
MultiPlus2 3000/32

I created a flow that gets the cheapest block of time to charge the batteries and then to discharge them during the expensive time

If people want I will create a github repro of the flow and wiki to set this up but its quite simple really and not dificult to setup

in short i grab the time slot needed to charge my batteries using the octopus node and pass into sqllite to store from there i use mqtt to set the charge schedule on the Cerbro ESS settings

If i get enough response i will create the repro and ppl who need it can setup the same.

Im sur ei can improve on this but for now its just about finding the right time to charge assuming the discharge time is from 4pm onwards assuming your battery can last as long as the the tim eneeded to cover the expsnsive time which normally end around 7-8pm

Regards

Boysie




cerbo gxESSMQTT
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mikebamber avatar image mikebamber commented ·
Hi Boysie -

Do you have a way of retrieving the current price on request, i.e. simply displaying the current price? I want to run a simple flow that changes the ESS state if the price is say <10p/kWh.

thanks

Mike

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Craig Chamberlain avatar image Craig Chamberlain mikebamber commented ·

One option would be to use the Octopus APIs which you can read about here: https://developer.octopus.energy/docs/api/

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7 Answers
Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Hi @Noisy Boysie

I think a lot of UK customers will be interested in this, and other countries that have similar schemes.

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Marcus Fosker avatar image
Marcus Fosker answered ·

@Noisy Boysie - I am very interested. I have a similar setup to you.

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Noisy Boysie avatar image
Noisy Boysie answered ·

I hae made the following after further testing and its been working well now for a few weeks since my Agile was enabled.

This is my first Node red project so expect there are many improvments but hopefully if anyone can make use of it you can automate your charging from the Octopus API

https://github.com/boysie123/octopus

I'll try and add a dashboard to see whats set and some basic options to set or reset timings as this all works from what i can tell from any device eg mobile browser. Let me know if would be good to add either here or on github by rasing an issue.

Regards

Boysie

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apple047 avatar image
apple047 answered ·

Hi, I'm certainly very much interested into this project, I have on order 3x multiplus'es 5kva and last week had a smart meter installed, I'm gathering documentation how to setup such controls on my Installation.
I don't have any experience in rednode or controls over modbus, a step by step guide would be welcomed.
I bet may people would be interested in such updrades

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Daniel avatar image
Daniel answered ·

You are ace boysie!


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dune7 avatar image
dune7 answered ·

Just looking at this now with a view to installing large version of Venus on my Cerbo GX and looking at NodeRed to read next day prices to set my ESS schedule(s) to charge my 10kw Pylons. I’m late to this thread so any updates or links to help much appreciated.

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jameshoare1964 avatar image jameshoare1964 commented ·
Dune7 - You are at exactly same position at me, got the PV / Quattro, BYD battery / generator all working, and got Venus Large onto my Cerbo, now entering a whole new world of Node Red, as want to talk to Octopus Agile. Boysie seems to be a star in sharing his learning which would be my plan once I know what on earth to do.
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Spencer avatar image
Spencer answered ·

I'm after something along these lines but maybe more generic and usable for different geographies.

I would like my batteries charged on the cheapest overnight tariff but only if the solar forecast won't give me the solar power I need. In the summer I won't use any off-peak power, in the winter I may run nearly 100% on off-peak. In late autumn and early Spring I would expect a battery top up overnight every few days.

An example is that I have 1kWh of available charge in my batteries as of now. I have an anticipated load the same as the history which happens to be 3kWh, this forecast covers the period from now until sunrise in just over 48 hours time. The forecast solar between now and sunrise in just over 48 hours time is 0.5kWh. So by the end of today I may have 1.5 kWh in my batteries but a forecast demand of 3kWh.

The tool would check that the off-peak tariff is at least 10% cheaper than the daytime tariff (due to losses in the system), if true then charge batteries tonight at the cheapest of the available rates. A nice feature would enable a buffer of x kWh or % of SoC rather than just 100%


Is this possible today or is this a new feature request?

Ideally this would run in parallel to my EV, i.e. I want that charged tonight too, this would need t charge the EV to the EV rate I have already agreed either in the car or with the energy provider.

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