Axle Virtual Power Plant

Preamble - DFS Schemes

I have a GivEnergy inverter and battery. In recent years it's been used for Octopus Octoplus,a DFS Scheme which encourages "turn down" events where consumers try to use less energy. In 2021-2022, it was a scheme that was needed for various reasons which came together at the wrong time and leaving the grid tighter than was entirely comfortable.

While the scheme proved very useful, and Octopus has supplemented with things such as Free Energy Sessions (Not super important to a battery owner) and Greener Nights (Which is a nice idea, poorly implemented), DFS hasn't paid well for the past year or two. Recently Octopus seem to have stopped bothering even submitting bids.

Axle VPP

Axle previously offered a DFS scheme in combination with GivEnergy (GivBack). It wasn't a bad little scheme, but Axle wanted to fully manage your battery, and Octopus had a better overall package.

Since then, Axle have used the technology to deliver VPP - Virtual Power Plant (That is to say, a distributed set of batteries which are controlled "as one" to provide power or demand to the grid when it needs it). They seem to be bidding on the day-ahead market, and generally give you about 20 hours notice. I will note that they seem a little evasive on which schemes they're actually involved in, presumably they want the freedom to enter into whatever schemes they wish to. Currently, they don't seem to be bidding on DFS.

They're willing to leave you to control your battery outside the "event" windows, or you can let them fully manage it. Axle want to program your inverter for the events so that they have some confidence that they will be able to delivery the power to the grid.

Supported Inverters

Right now, GivEnergy, Fox and Sig. With more being added "soon". In practice, Axle control through the manufacturers web management platform.

Financials

They're running a beta period until the end of March 2026. During this period they're paying

• £25 (each) as a referral bonus, which you're able to withdraw immediately. (link if you want a link)
• A minimum of £10 / month (Which makes this a very attractive scheme)
• £1/kWh for use, which is far more than DFS has paid in years

Payout is by bank transfer and a minimum of £10. I've had a payment from them already

Signup process

Fairly easy, you upload a bill from your energy supplier, it scrapes your meter references. Then you give it some guidance as to how to generate an API key. Should be done in 5 minutes

Support

I asked them about compatibility with Octopus Octoplus, they responded on the next working day, and the response seemed to be human written and competent.