Smart SPOT can save every Czech solar power system owner up to 35% on energy costs

With the Smart SPOT tariff from Bidli, you can control your home intelligently and efficiently. The tariff is designed for everyone who already has a solar power system or is planning to get one in the near future. We can now optimize your photovoltaic system—including the inverter and battery—as well as your EV charging wallbox, water heater and other electrical equipment, so that you use electricity from your solar power system during the day and buy it from the grid when it is cheapest.

We will install a smart device from Loxone at the photovoltaic inverter, to which both the solar panels and battery storage are connected, and link it to our smart cloud, which records electricity consumption every 15 seconds. Using this data, we can determine when the most electricity is generated by the solar power system in your home and when your household’s consumption is highest. Our algorithms then use electricity price lists on the day-ahead market to identify the cheapest time and price at which to buy additional energy.

The Loxone smart device remotely controls the photovoltaic inverter so that it buys electricity when the spot price is lowest in a given 15-minute period, without buying more energy than necessary. For our Smart SPOT tariff to deliver significant savings on electricity in a particular home, we also need to understand and learn the habits of that household. That is why we will connect not only the inverter to the smart home management system, but also individual appliances that consume more electricity. These include, in particular, the hot water heater and the aforementioned wallbox for charging electric vehicles.

We will then use all these devices most intensively when electricity is cheap or when we have plenty of solar power. As part of our management service, we can therefore not only monitor electricity prices throughout the day, but also track the weather forecast. The intelligent system also monitors, among other things, the charge level of your solar batteries. We also monitor how your home has behaved in previous periods and adjust the system accordingly for EV charging, water heating, heating and, where applicable, cooling.

If you already own a solar power system, all you need to do is order an installation from us and connect it to our Smart Cloud. We will evaluate the data collected during our tests through Bidli’s Smart Cloud. Based on our algorithms, we will charge your batteries not only from your solar power system, but also from the grid. This means you will avoid buying electricity when it is expensive and have enough energy stored from periods when electricity is cheapest. We can remotely control inverters and batteries from all manufacturers.

Overall, our customers save up to an additional 35% with this highly efficient approach compared with standard spot-price tariffs, which were 25% cheaper last year than standard fixed-price tariffs.

Petr Špirit, Bidli analyst