But also, if we wanted to expand that to actually all equipment that is flexible on the demand side, what what are the barriers to getting to that world at the moment?

Yeah.

I mean, I wouldn't call it an experiment, actually.

It's a very serious commercial proposition.

I mean, we are currently at the moment in Britain managing about 300,000 to 400,000 electric vehicles, representing, if you like, a virtual power plant of three gigawatts.

And when I say managing, I mean, we are We are actively controlling when those batteries charge and take power from the grid.

Using AI and integrating our software with the EV battery, we've actually got direct control over the charging of those vehicles within parameters, of course, that the customer has set.

Like, how can we break the sort of like vicious cycle that we're in and move to a more like virtuous version of that cycle in a sense?

And I believe that Octopus is already operating a fleet of... evs and ev chargers in a way that's very flexible and maybe you can tell us a little bit about that experiment um but also if we wanted to expand that to essentially all equipment that is flexible on the demand side what what are the barriers to getting to that world at the moment

Yeah.

I mean, I wouldn't call it an experiment, actually.

It's a very serious commercial proposition.

I mean, we are currently at the moment in Britain managing about 300,000 to 400,000 electric vehicles, representing, if you like, a virtual power plant of three gigawatts.

And when I say managing, I mean, we are actually actively controlling when those batteries charge and take power from the grid.

Using AI and integrating our software with EV battery, we've actually got direct control over the charging of those vehicles within parameters, of course, that the customer has set.

Like how can we break the sort of like, vicious cycle that we're in and move to a more like virtuous version of that cycle in a sense.

How big a weekend do you think this is for them?

This has been massive.

I mean we didn't have a young carers group at Marine Academy and then I decided to start it because there is a big need in especially our school because we're in a deprived area and we do have a lot of young carers.

So we set it up and then we've been fundraising.

The school have really helped a lot but we've done raffles, we've done other things to get the money to bring the students away and also we've raised money from staff so that on the way home we can get a McDonald's and an ice cream.

What's been the impact on you of seeing nearly 1,000 people all who know what young caring is?

Just seeing all the young children enjoying themselves.

I mean, we were dancing for three hours non-stop last night with people that we didn't know as well.

uh, how much are they aware of the problem and willing to make the changes or engage with the rest of the ecosystem about getting this done?

Yeah.

I mean, I think it's more of a policy challenge than a regulatory challenge in Britain.

And I, and I think without, without being, uh, too critical, um, we, we've got a disconnect between our energy policy and our industrial policy, which isn't helpful at all.

Um, and, you know, a lot of our... well, the, the main core of our energy policy in Britain is, is about cleaning up the grid, which is a laudable objective.

But doing it at any cost is not good for the country, and as we know, is actually ruining political consensus and public consensus behind clean power and net zero.

So I think this is the challenge that we've got, is we've, we've got a very, very narrow focus just on, on building renewables and building the grid, uh, to take those renewables.

But yeah, it, it's the same things that come up a lot, but there is definitely a more of a, a movement towards more structural considerations being made.