Lower thirds:

00:01 Report by / Kerstin Schweizer
00:14 Tymur Donets / Tibber employee
00:48 Edgeir Aksnes / CEO Tibber
01:54 Dirk Biermann, 50 Hertz Transmission COO

Script:

Charging up the car... how much will it cost? Maybe nothing... in Europe, you can get paid for using electricity - for charging, but also for running the dishwasher or whatever else. The phenomenon: a negative electricity price.

+++ SOT Tymur Donets, Tibber employee +++
"It's an interesting feeling that you're charging your car, getting the electricity, and not only don't have to pay anything, but actually get paid for it."

Tymur's app helps him to charge at the lowest available price, which sometimes drops below zero. All he needs to profit from market fluctuations is a digital power meter.

The startup Tibber has turned this into a business. It brokers energy to households at market prices.

+++ SOT Edgeir Aksnes, CEO Tibber +++
"A smart meter is a meter that is measuring the consumption in your house every 15 minutes so that you are being then the energy invoice you're getting is based on your consumption and not the, the consumption of your neighbor, so to say. So you being so how you are consuming energy throughout the day is how you are being billed.... It basically makes sure that you are billed accurately, automatically and based on the profile you have in your home."

The company's app gets devices to use electricity when it is cheapest on the energy exchange. It's mostly useful for households with high energy consumption - those with electric cars, battery storage systems, or heat pumps.

The main reason for the significant price fluctuations on the energy exchange is solar power.
Over the years, solar power capacity has been massively expanded throughout Germany.

On days with lots of sunshine and low energy demand - such as weekends, when factories are idle - supply can significantly outstrip demand. Prices on the energy exchange collapse.

+++ SOT Dirk Biermann, 50 Hertz Transmission COO +++
"With solar power in particular, whenever it feeds large amounts of electricity into the grid, it does so during the midday hours. And this applies to all solar installations, across the entire grid. This leads to what we call "feed-in peaks" -- instances where there is simply an excess of electricity."

In Europe, renewable sources now account for just under 50 percent of power generation. In Germany, that figure stands at nearly 60 percent.
Lawmakers intend to continue expanding this capacity.

So it will become even more important to balance out  feed-in peaks through flexible electricity pricing - also to ensure grid stability.

Tymur has already adapted to this new landscape. His car charges automatically whenever there is a power surplus. And every now and then, he even gets paid for helping to relieve the strain on the power grid.

END