Tibber to launch new eMobility product in three markets

The Norwegian electricity provider Tibber is launching a new energy product called Grid Rewards in the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. Grid Rewards is designed to enable customers to earn money by connecting their electric cars when they reduce the load on the grids through their controllable electricity consumption.

According to the company, initial projections show that households can expect an average annual revenue of 100 euros if market conditions do not change. Tibber launched the new Grid Rewards service in Sweden and Norway on 24 April. A pilot project has been running in the Netherlands since 7 March.

In Germany, Grid Rewards will initially be introduced in the course of this year in a watered-down form without smart meters, as the necessary infrastructure – i.e. nationwide smart meters – is still lacking in this country. However, anyone wishing to use the product in Germany on a reduced scale must prove to Tibber that they have already commissioned a smart meter installation. This is because from 2025, households in Germany with smart meters “will also be able to benefit from the full scope of Grid Rewards”, according to Tibber. The reduced scope is therefore limited in time and only accessible to a restricted target group. Tibber’s statement that the offer in a reduced form “will nevertheless give customers a taste of the product experience and thus incentivise them to install a smart meter” therefore comes to nothing if it is only offered to those customers who have already ordered a smart meter anyway.

With Grid Rewards, the Norwegians want to utilise the flexible storage capacities of electric car batteries in their virtual power plant. Later this year in Scandinavia and the Netherlands, other important electrical appliances such as solar panel inverters, heat pumps or home batteries can also be used to collect Grid Rewards. Anyone who makes their storage or generation capacity available and helps the grid in the process can expect to earn additional income.

“We’ve all driven past a wind turbine and wondered why it’s standing still even though the wind is blowing. The answer is often: the energy system is overloaded. Now everyone can help to ensure that energy is used more efficiently: All the customer has to do is connect the electric car to the charging box and we take care of the rest,” says Daniel Lindén, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Tibber.

The Grid Rewards product is offered in addition to automated smart charging, which controls the charging of the electric car battery in a cost-optimised way. Depending on the dynamic Tibber electricity tariff, the charging process is started or interrupted – depending on the threshold value entered by the customer.

tibber.com (PDF)