US microinverter specialist Enphase Energy has announced a new strategic partnership in the United Kingdom with the country’s largest electricity supplier, Octopus Energy Group.
The partnership will see the two parties deploy Enphase’s IQ8 microinverters, which provide up to 384 W to support high-powered solar modules, and IQ Battery 5P, a modular design with 5 kWh of capacity, in the UK market.
The agreement will also allow Octopus Energy’s retail customers to integrate Enphase’s home solar and battery systems into their energy plans. Customers who install Enphase Energy Systems, a software solution that allows customers to manage their home energy networks, will be able to benefit from smart tariffs, saving money on electricity bills each year.
Octopus Energy also plans to use its proprietary Kraken software platform to manage, control, and optimize distributed energy resources (DER), so its customers can create virtual power plants with Enphase’s solar and battery systems. This is expected to support the management of customer batteries and help to reduce overall energy usage when the grid is the most constrained.
“This strategic relationship is an exciting step forward in solar technology growth and homeowner empowerment in the United Kingdom,” said Kraken Technologies CEO Devrim Celal. “We're not only driving down costs for consumers but also creating a cheaper, greener grid in real-time.”
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Marco Krapels, Enphase Energy’s vice president of worldwide business development, said Enphase’s home energy systems, paired with Octopus Energy’s tariffs and DERs, can “unlock huge potential for the energy grid” in the UK market.
“Together, we can provide flexible and cost-effective energy usage across more than 7 million households in the United Kingdom and accelerate the broader energy transition,” said Krapels.
Earlier this month, Enphase Energy released a new power control system for its North American customers. It began shipping its updated IQ8 microinverters in February.
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Hell, does this mean that Enphase now has a fix for their failed microinverters that are installed one per panel on their systems? My system was installed in 2016 and I’ve had one replaced and one has failed and was not replaced to date pending a newly designed microinverter.
I think Octopus energy needs to look after the customers they already have not taken on other businesses