Discover ePOWR: FlexiO’s smart trading service. Save even more on your energy bill through automatic trading on the exchange, with a safety net against market losses.

What is ePOWR?

With ePOWR, FlexiO transforms into a smart energy trading service. FlexiO automatically buys and sells your energy on various wholesale markets at the best possible prices, at the right time, and fully tailored to your installation and circumstances.

The aim is simple: to keep your total energy costs as low as possible.

FlexiO as a smart energy trader

Just as there are financial exchanges, there are also electricity trading exchanges. The price of electricity fluctuates constantly on these exchanges. Sometimes it is very cheap, sometimes very expensive, and sometimes even below zero. With most energy contracts, you hardly notice this.

With an ePOWR tariff, it works differently. As a smart trader, FlexiO buys and sells energy depending on prices, your consumption pattern and your installation, with the aim of keeping your energy bill as low as possible. You don’t have to do a thing. At the end of the month, you’ll see the result on your bill.

What do you get?

• Your energy is traded to generate a benefit for you. Your consumption and the energy you feed back into the grid are actively traded on various markets.
• You’ll never pay more than your standard tariff rates. You may, however, receive an extra discount.
• You’ll maintain your comfort. Your home will stay warm, your car will stay charged, and your appliances will work as usual.

What is an ePOWR credit?

You will see an extra line on your monthly bill. This is the discount awarded if the smart trader was able to purchase your energy at a lower price than your standard supply bill.

There are three possible scenarios:

• ePOWR credit > 0: trading has resulted in an additional saving for you compared to your supply bill.
• ePOWR credit = 0: buying and selling did not yield any extra benefit this period compared to what you were already saving on your supply bill.
• ePOWR credit < 0: in this situation, buying and selling on the market was not more advantageous for you. A safety net has been created for this situation: in this case, your credit is reset to 0. You will never be charged a surcharge.

If you are also active on rPOWR for a full month, the line item on your bill (the FlexCredit) is the sum of both the ePOWR credit and rPOWR. So you receive your full payment via the same bill. Nice and easy.

FlexiO doesn’t have a crystal ball

No one knows in advance what the market will do. FlexiO constantly seeks out the best possible choice at any given moment, based on forecasts: of the weather, your consumption, and market prices. But forecasts are never perfect.

In hindsight, with yesterday’s figures on the table, it’s easy to think: “if my battery had been a bit fuller here, I could have benefited much more”, or ‘why isn’t it always half-full, so it can react in both directions?’ Valid points. But at the time of the decision, FlexiO didn’t know the future. It worked with the best estimate available at that moment, not certainty. Sometimes that estimate turns out to be wrong and a loss is incurred within fifteen minutes.

That is why a safety net was built into the market entry with ePOWR, so that you are not exposed to the risks. We cover those for you. Bad fifteen-minute periods do happen, but if the monthly result is negative, no penalty is ever charged.

What ePOWR is not

Three common misconceptions, briefly debunked:

• No ‘grid balancing at your expense’. Your battery isn’t used to benefit anyone else. Every decision concerns your own electricity, on your bill.
• No exposure to costly market losses. The safety net ensures you never pay more than the volumes you’ve supplied, under your standard tariff terms.
• No loss of convenience. ePOWR operates behind the scenes. You won’t notice a thing in your daily life.

ePOWR is stronger together

With a standard contract, you’re on your own. Not so with an ePOWR-compatible tariff. All ePOWR customers form a single group, a shared structure.

• On normal days, everyone benefits individually, on their own bill. This varies for everyone, depending on the size of your installation, your consumption pattern, etc.
• On highly exceptional market days, we also cushion the sharp edges together. Anyone who was on a losing streak at such a moment is supported by those on the other side. No one loses a whole month’s benefit because of a handful of extremely volatile quarters.

Together, we make maximum use of renewable energy and the opportunities that come with it.

What can you do yourself?

Three simple steps to help you get the most out of an ePOWR tariff:

• Give FlexiO as much control as possible. The more devices you connect – battery, solar panels, charging point, the more opportunities there are to make a difference for you. Charging your electric car, in particular, has a significant impact.
• Charge your car in Smart or ECO mode. Your charging point will then respond to actual market prices and adjust the charging speed itself.
• Controllable solar panels help. Especially on days with (very) negative prices, temporarily switching them off can make a difference. Such days will occur more frequently.

FlexiO is evolving

Behind the scenes, we are working hard to make FlexiO better and smarter, every day. Market access via ePOWR is highly innovative and still relatively new: new features are being launched all the time, and we see plenty of room for improvement.

Would you like to gain a deeper understanding of exactly how FlexiO works with an ePOWR-compatible tariff? Using a real-life example and the figures behind the scenes, we’ll explain it all to you in full. From A to Z.

Read on in Part 2.