For Axle Energy members · Available now
ShiftCharge for Axle Energy grid events
Join Axle Energy VPP grid events with your home battery. ShiftCharge fills the battery beforehand and exports during each event, built into your daily plan.
Get startedAxle Energy runs a virtual power plant (VPP) that pays UK homeowners to send power from their battery to the grid when it’s needed most, usually for an hour at a time.
ShiftCharge reads your Axle events and builds each one into your battery plan. Your battery is ready when the event starts, exports while it runs, and goes back to your normal plan afterwards. Axle pays you directly, as it always does.
How it works
Axle usually announces an event a few hours to a day ahead. ShiftCharge checks your Axle account every 10 minutes, and as soon as an event appears it rebuilds your plan around it.
If topping the battery up with cheaper power earlier in the day pays off, the plan charges beforehand. During the event the plan switches to Discharge to grid, so the energy goes out when Axle is paying for it. When the event ends, your normal plan picks up again.
The next event shows on your ShiftCharge home screen. If you need the battery for something else that day, you can skip the event with one tap and the plan rebuilds without it.
What you need
An Axle Energy account set to Events Only mode. In that mode Axle tells you when events are happening but leaves control of the battery to you, so ShiftCharge and Axle never compete over it.
A battery ShiftCharge already runs: Growatt, GivEnergy or Solis, on a UK smart tariff.
An Axle token. In your Axle account open Account Settings, then Home Assistant, and click Generate Token. Paste it into ShiftCharge under Settings, then Axle grid events. We check it with Axle before saving and store it encrypted.
Why plan for events instead of reacting to them
A battery can only export what it holds. If an event lands at 6pm and the battery is half empty after the afternoon, there is less to sell. Because ShiftCharge sees the event hours ahead, it can plan the whole day so the battery is full when the event starts, using cheap or free solar where it can.
The same planner still handles everything else: overnight cheap-rate charging, solar forecasts, and powering your home through the evening peak.
Common questions
- Does ShiftCharge pay me for Axle events?
- No. Axle pays you directly under your Axle agreement. ShiftCharge only makes sure your battery is ready for each event and exports during it. You tell us your Axle rate so the plan can decide how much to charge beforehand.
- Will my battery always export during an event?
- If your inverter can be told to export on command, yes. Some inverters, such as Growatt MIN models, cannot. For those, ShiftCharge keeps the battery full so it covers your home during the event instead of drawing from the grid.
- Can I keep using Axle’s app?
- Yes. Your Axle account, events and payments stay in Axle. Only one app should control your battery, so leave Axle in Events Only mode and let ShiftCharge do the scheduling.
- What happens if Axle cancels an event?
- If an event disappears from your Axle account before it starts, ShiftCharge drops it from your plan. Once an event has started, the battery keeps exporting until it ends.
Want this running in your home?
Connect your battery and tariff, then link your Axle Energy account in Settings. Every event goes straight into your plan.
Get started